Pubdate: Fri, 13 Dec 2002
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Copyright: 2002 San Antonio Express-News
Contact:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/expressnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Ken Guggenheim, Associated Press

U.S. DRUG WARRIORS DEFEND COLOMBIAN OPIUM BATTLE

WASHINGTON - Anti-drug officials Thursday rejected lawmakers' claims
that they're doing little to eradicate Colombia's opium, the raw
material for most of the heroin sold in the United States.Members of
the House Government Reform Committee said a $1.8 billion anti-drug
program in Colombia is so focused on eradicating coca, little is being
done about opium.

Fewer opium crops are being fumigated this year than before U.S.
helicopters and other anti-drug aid began arriving two years ago.

The result has been a surge in heroin in the United States, lawmakers
said.

"Plain and simple, the heroin that is flooding the United States and
is killing our citizens comes from Colombia," said Rep. Bob Barr,
R-Ga. "It is a weapon of mass destruction and we must help the
Colombian government eradicate it, before it gets to the United States."

A top State Department anti-drug official, Paul Simons, told lawmakers
the United States is fighting opium as well as coca in Colombia.

"We know the enemy and what we need to do," he said. "We have assets
in country deployed to do the job, and we have effective and strong
leadership in Colombia prepared to do its part."

In 2000, pilots sprayed about 22,700 acres of opium. That figure fell
to about 3,950 acres last year. U.S. officials hope to spray about
12,350 acres this year.

Simons said opium spraying was hindered last year by a lack of spray
planes and pilots, interruptions in the flow of money and bad weather.
With coca eradication requiring fewer resources than opium
eradication, it was a higher priority.

Colombia's Foreign Minister Carolina Barco noted the difficulty of
fumigating opium.

Opium poppies "are cultivated at much higher altitudes than coca and
we need to find ways to eradicate them and find economic alternatives"
for opium farmers, she said.

Colombia accounts for most of the world's cocaine, but only a tiny
fraction of its heroin. But almost all Colombian heroin is sold in the
United States, mostly in the East. Cocaine is much more popular than
heroin in the United States, but heroin accounts for more fatal overdoses.

Colombian heroin tends to be purer than the Mexican heroin that
dominates the western United States. Because of its purity, it's often
inhaled, making it more appealing to people who don't want to use needles.

Police and anti-drug officials say Colombian heroin is tied to what
they see as increased use of the drug.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek