Pubdate: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2002 Associated Press Author: George Gedda RESULTS OF DRUG SPRAYING UNCLEAR WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S.-backed Colombian police sprayed nearly twice as many acres of coca in Colombia last year in the fight against cocaine, but the impact on overall production is still unclear, the State Department said Friday. A CIA report on Colombian production figures is expected to be made public by the White House next week. The numbers should help evaluate the success of the stepped-up U.S.-Colombian effort to combat rampant coca production in Colombia, by far the world's largest producer. Coca is the raw material for cocaine. Data on Colombia and virtually all other countries worldwide was contained in the annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. The report said more than 200,000 acres of coca were sprayed in Colombia last year - almost twice as much as in 2000. Colombian officials said Thursday their figures show a dramatic reduction in coca cultivation in 2001. In contrast, the State Department said that although final figures were not available at the time of publication there was probably an increase. In recent years, production in Colombia has steadily gone up but the rate of increase has been declining. Perhaps the brightest spot in U.S.-Colombian cooperation was in the area of extraditions. The report said 26 fugitives, including 23 Colombians, were extradited to the United States, with eight more in the final stages of removal, a big increase over the previous three-year period. The report gave a cautiously upbeat account of overall U.S. antidrug activities last year. ``U.S. international counternarcotics efforts kept the drug trade on the defensive in 2001,'' it said. ``A long-term campaign among Western Hemisphere nations to curb the flow of cocaine and heroin to the United States has systematically narrowed the drug syndicates' maneuvering room. With our allies, we continued to attack drug crop expansion, to strengthen interdiction efforts and to break up major trafficking organizations.'' On other countries, the report said: Opium poppy cultivation in Mexico almost tripled last year compared with 2000. Mexico effectively eradicated 42,000 acres of poppies in 2001 but remaining land yielded some 78 tons of opium gum. This compares with 30 tons the previous year. Mexico remains a major supplier of heroin, methamphetamine, and marijuana, and is the transit point for more than one half of the cocaine sold in the United States. Laundering of drug money in Mexico remains a major problem despite government efforts to combat it. There was a ``vast reduction'' in poppy cultivation in Pakistan, enabling the country to essentially achieve its goal of eliminating opium production only a year behind schedule. The crop fell to a record low of 526 acres in 2001, with cultivation concentrated in inaccessible areas. Farmers throughout Afghanistan took advantage of the collapse of the Taliban militia last November to resume poppy cultivation. The Taliban had banned poppy production but no effort was made to seize stored opium or precursor chemicals, or to arrest and prosecute narcotics traffickers. To the extent poppy production continued, it was in areas controlled by the northern alliance which, with U.S. military support, helped to drive the Taliban from power. The interim government has outlawed poppy production but U.S. officials acknowledge that it lacks the ability to enforce the ban. In Peru, a highly successful coca eradication program reduced the number of acres planted with coca. But, ``record price levels for coca in these areas during 2001 is endangering the progress made since 1995. Moreover, reports of poppy cultivation are increasing at an alarming rate.'' In Bolivia, after a successful coca eradication program during the final years of the last decade, there was a slowdown in 2001, resulting in increased production. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk