Pubdate: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2001 Associated Press Author: Ken Guggenheim (AP) OPIUM ERADICATION FALLS IN COLOMBIA WASHINGTON - Despite the start of a $1.3 billion U.S. anti-drug program, spray pilots in Colombia have destroyed 75 percent less opium so far this year than they did in 2000, according to U.S. government figures that also show Colombians achieved a marked increase in coca eradication. A senior Republican congressman called the decline in opium destruction alarming and said the State Department, which oversees the program with Colombian police, should be held accountable. "There is no reason that we could not have eradicated this scourge of opium this year," said Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., former chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Through Nov. 7, pilots sprayed 5,414 acres of opium, the raw material for heroin, compared with 22,867 acres for all of 2000, according to figures provided The Associated Press by the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, Colombia. It is unclear how much more spraying will take place this year. As opium destruction foundered, eradication of coca, the raw material for cocaine, increased to 197,603 acres through Nov. 7 from 116,140 acres in 2000. "The attention of the Colombians and the American government may be so focused on the coca problem that the opium problem just hasn't received the attention and emphasis," said Rensselaer Lee, a consultant on international drug issues. Colombia has long been the world's leading producer of cocaine. It accounts for only a tiny fraction of the world's heroin market but is the largest source of heroin sold in the United States, according to the U.S. officials. It has the potential to produce almost 9 tons of heroin annually, virtually all for the illicit U.S. market. Many more Americans use cocaine than heroin. A Health and Human Services survey last year found 308,000 Americans had used heroin during the year compared with 3.3 million cocaine users. The State Department, which directs the eradication program with Colombia National Police, referred to the embassy questions about the decline in opium destruction. An embassy official said destroying opium is difficult because much of it is grown in areas where aerial spraying is prohibited, such as indigenous reservations. But he said he does not know if more opium is being grown in these regions this year than in 2000. The official spoke on condition he not be identified. Fumigating opium is generally more complicated than fumigating coca. Because opium is grown in the mountains, the crops are often hidden by cloud cover. The terrain makes flying over the fields dangerous and prevents the use of the twin-propeller OV-10 planes used on coca fields because they can't be maneuvered easily. Opium takes only three or four months to grow, so even when destroyed, it can be replanted quickly to require follow-up spray missions. Coca can take more than a year to replant. The $1.3 billion Colombian aid package approved last year was mostly for helicopters and training to help Colombian soldiers fight leftist guerrillas who protect drug fields and laboratories. Colombia will receive additional anti-drug money under a follow-up Andean aid package now being considered by Congress. The package also included money for nine new single-engine, T-65 spray planes, which are capable of spraying opium poppies on mountainsides. But the plane's manufacturer, Ayres Corp., of Albany, Ga., went bankrupt and shut its assembly lines in August, shortly before the planes were to be delivered. The State Department plans to buy similar crop dusters from another manufacturer, and the embassy official in Bogota said this should increase the number of opium spray missions. The State Department had five older T-65s in Colombia as of July 31, according to a recent General Accounting Office report. One of the planes disappeared in poor weather Oct. 1 near the Bahamas while flying to Patrick Air Force Base in Florida. The pilot has not been found. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth