DATE=10/5/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=DRUG CZAR IN L-A
NUMBER=5-44421
BYLINE=MIKE O'SULLIVAN
DATELINE=LOS ANGELES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: U-S Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey, who is visiting
Los Angeles, says the United States and Mexico are
cooperating effectively in the war on drugs.
Correspondent Mike O'Sullivan reports the official
encouraged students, and enlisted the help of an
athlete, in the fight against substance abuse.
TEXT: Mr. McCaffrey, who directs the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy, says the
southwestern United States is a transit point for
cocaine from Mexico. The Western United States is
also a major source of illegally grown marijuana, and
California produces half of the nation's
methamphetamines.
Local law enforcement officials say Mexican drug
cartels are increasingly active in producing and
distributing drugs in the United States. Mexican
bankers have been convicted in U-S Courts of
laundering drug profits. Some foreign commercial
firms have also been implicated. But Barry McCaffrey
says the problem is international, and drug funds
leave a dirty trail of corruption.
///FIRST MCCAFFREY ACT ///
We need to stop talking about the problems of
Mexico dealing with drugs and of Colombia, and
instead talk about individual accountability and
businesses being held accountable for criminal
activity. The Mexican government is trying to
protect their own 100-million people and their
own children and their own work force from drug
abuse. The problem isn't lack of commitment by
(Mexican) Attorney-General Madraso. The problem
is that there are huge, dangerous, corrupting
criminal organizations operating across these
national borders.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. McCaffrey says just six-percent of the U-S
population use illegal drugs, according to surveys.
But the size of the market is huge. The nation's 16-
million users spend more than 50-billion dollars a
year on their habit. Mr. McCaffrey says such profits
threaten corruption in the judiciary, the police and
customs service -- in the United States, Latin America
and elsewhere.
In response to calls that drugs like marijuana be de-
criminalized, the official says the Clinton
administration remains opposed to this.
In his meeting with reporters, Mr. McCaffrey
criticized the governor of New Mexico, a neighboring
state to California. That official, Gary Johnson,
recently urged that most narcotics be legalized. Mr.
McCaffrey called the comment "irresponsible."
/// SECOND MCCAFFREY ACT ///
The problem isn't that they're illegal. The
problem is that they're ferociously addictive,
and they make people act in a compulsive manner.
And they make them unemployable. And they get
them involved in permanently altered, impaired
brain function. That's the problem with these
drugs.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. McCaffrey met with 25-thousand students while in
Los Angeles. They are part of a program called DARE,
which encourages young people to avoid violence, gangs
and drug use.
He also met privately with former Olympic track star
Carl Lewis, enlisting the athlete's help in the fight
against performance-enhancing drugs in the Olympics.
Carl Lewis told V-O-A that "doping" remains a problem.
/// LEWIS ACT ///
It's a tremendous problem because it isn't a
matter of numbers, in terms of most athletes
taking it. Most athletes are not taking drugs.
But when you deal with five of the best, when
you step on the starting line of 100 meters,
that's five of eight. That's a huge percentage.
So people look up to them because of their
performances and they try to follow them in many
cases.
/// END ACT ///
Carl Lewis joined Barry McCaffrey in calling for
stricter drug testing of Olympic athletes, by a full-
time independent agency.
Both men say performance-enhancing substances like
steroids undermine the integrity of athletics.
(Signed)
NEB/MO/TVM/gm
05-Oct-1999 18:39 PM EDT (05-Oct-1999 2239 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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