Pubdate: Fri, 17 Sep 1999
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Chronicle
Page: D4
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/
Author:  Anthony Faiola, Washington Post
Note: This is a longer edition, with a sidebar posted at the end, then the
item as it appeared in the Post.

DRUG ADDICTION GROWS IN LATIN AMERICA

Excess That Isn't Sold Abroad Is Cheap At Home

Two months ago, Raul, a 30-year-old father of two, checked out of a public
hospital for severe drug addicts that takes in 100 new patients a month.

But two weeks later, he checked back in after injecting cocaine into his
spindly arms again. And so he has returned to Thdgeting in his room, his
cheeks sunken and his eyes red.

``I don't want to make excuses,'' said Raul, a dry cleaner who asked that
only his first name be used. He shares a room with two other addicts at
Argentina's National Center for Social Re-Education, a treatment center
whose patient population has grown 15 percent during the 1990s. ``But when
you get out of here, back in your neighborhood, the (cocaine) is
everywhere, man. And it's cheap.''

Drawn faces walking the center's hallways are among many illustrations of
an increase in illicit drug use in Latin America that has become
increasingly apparent during the 1990s as traffickers create markets at
home for inexpensive and abundant drugs.

Although the region has long cultivated and exported illicit drugs, local
consumption is rising. Now, in big cities such as Buenos Aires, where about
4 percent of the population acknowledges having used drugs, the percentage
of users has begun to rival that in the United States.

For Latin America, which historically has considered illicit drug use a
problem for far-off places such as New York, Washington and Los Angeles,
the hike in domestic consumption is bringing the issue home as never before.

Nations here are facing not only increased drug-related violence, but also
higher transmission rates for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, among
intravenous drug users, as well as the disintegration of families forced to
cope with addiction.

``I think we're all waking up to the reality that drug use is no longer
just something that's happening in the United States,'' said Eduardo
Amadeo, president of the Argentine Planning Secretariat for
Counternarcotics and Drug Prevention.

``Drugs are now being sold on the corner near the schools my children
attend, near our (social) clubs and (soccer) fields. It's a problem right
here, and one that we are now going to have to deal with.''

U.S. officials, whose approach to the drug problem is often criticized in
Latin America because of the view here that the problem is not one of
trafThcking but of U.S. demand, have been quick to seize on the fact that
illicit drug use is ``no longer just a gringo problem.''

Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy,
made that clear on his visit to Latin America last week, saying local drug
use is strengthening the political will to combat trafThcking.

Consumption of illicit drugs in Latin America still does not approach
levels in the United States, which remains the world's biggest consumer by
far. In addition, some of the deadliest drugs, such as heroin, are
virtually absent from most Latin American cities. But the percentage of
drug users here is growing fast.

Governments are scrambling to start new prevention and law enforcement
programs as drug use takes a toll on public health and public coffers. One
report from Brazil estimates the cost of medical care for drug addiction
soared from $902 million in 1993 to $2.9 billion in 1997. At the same time,
the percentage of AIDS cases from intravenous drug use moved from 2.5
percent in 1985 to 25 percent in 1998.

In Buenos Aires, a city of 12 million, the first official government poll
on drug use showed consumption at 4.1 percent of the population, similar to
levels in Washington, Chicago and New York, according to McCaffrey's
office. Nationwide, the number was 3 percent. Although that is half the
U.S. rate, local authorities compared it with estimates of only 1 percent
here early in the decade.

In Mexico City, the number of people who said they have tried drugs at
least once increased to 7.3 percent, up from 4 percent in 1993.

In Chile, an official 1998 survey showed 5.3 percent of the population
between the ages of 12 and 62 had used marijuana, cocaine base or refined
cocaine, up from 4.3 percent in 1996, with rates higher than the national
average in the capital, Santiago.

In Peru - mainly in Lima and other major urban centers - the number of
people between 12 and 50 saying they had used cocaine at least once rose to
3.2 percent in 1998, compared with 1.3 percent in 1988. Those saying they
had used marijuana jumped to 8 percent from 5.3 percent during the same
period, according to the Lima-based Center for Information on Prevention
and Drug Abuse.

Latin Americans take drugs for many of the same reasons North Americans and
Europeans do. But trafThckers are also making illicit drugs more affordable
domestically, pushing the excess product they can't sell abroad.

In Peru, for instance, efforts to prevent the transport of Peruvian coca -
the plant used to make cocaine - to large Colombian reThneries has fostered
primitive local reThning and domestic marketing of often dangerously impure
forms of cocaine, anti-drug authorities say. On the streets of Lima,
bazuco, a derivative of coca paste smoked like crack cocaine, can be bought
for 10 cents a hit - the lowest price in three years, ofThcials say.

``Suddenly, you had all this product in everybody's backyard and nobody to
buy it,'' said a Western diplomat in Lima. ``It was sort of like having
grass clippings, but these clippings had a high worth. So they just turned
around and found another market - here.''

[sidebar]

CHART:  DRUG USE IN LATIN AMERICA  Use of illicit drugs in Latin
America has increased substantially in the 1990s, according to
national surveys, which asked adults whether they had used drugs in
the past 30 days, the past year or at least once.

Any illicit drugs

Percentage of Argentina respondents  '99   2.9%

Percentage of Colombia respondents '92  5.9% '96 6.6%

Percentage of Mexico respondents '93 3.9% '98  5.3%

Percentage of Mexico City respondents '93 4.0% '98 7.3%

Percentage of Chile respondents '96  4.3% '98 5.3%

NOTE: Data for Argentina refer to use in the past 30 days; data for
Colombia, Mexico City and Mexico refer to use at least once; Chile refers
to use in the past year.

SOURCES - Argentine Planning Secretariat for Counternarcotics and Drug
Prevention; Colombian government survey; Mexican government survey; Chilean
government.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake