24 January 2002

ONDCP Chief Visits Colombia, Outlines U.S. Drug Policy Objectives

To help curb the problem of illegal drugs, President Bush has decided to "make an unprecedented investment in demand reduction" in the United States, says John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).

Walters, speaking at a press roundtable in Colombia on January 16, told reporters that the United States intends to "begin to radically reduce the demand for drugs in our nation" as part of a comprehensive policy that addresses issues of domestic drug consumption as well as predominantly foreign sources of supply.

To that end, the president will pledge $1.6 billion [$1,600 million] over a five-year period to fund treatment programs for drug addicts, Walters said. He noted that "we are also going to expand our prevention efforts" in the United States, and President Bush "wants to be personally involved in leading some of those efforts."

Moreover, Walters added, the United States will work closely with its partners and allies around the world to coordinate counter-drug strategies on all levels, including law enforcement and alternative-development initiatives. He pointed out that drug trafficking -- inevitably accompanied by bribery, corruption and violence -- seriously undermines the ability of democratic institutions to function properly. In response, the United States will strongly support measures to bolster democracy "where we have partners and opportunities," he said.

Increased cooperation on counter-drug policy throughout the Western Hemisphere will help regional governments to confront and dismantle illegal drug syndicates, Walters suggested.

"I think our own president and leaders now are interested in attacking the demand-and-supply problem in a way that has not been possible before, [which] gives us an historic opportunity to reduce this threat to both the well-being of our peoples and the democratic institutions" of the hemisphere, he said. "I also think the bottom line is if you are in the drug business, it's time to get out."

Following is a transcript of Walters' press roundtable in Colombia:

[Note: In the transcript, "billion" equals "thousand million."]

Press Roundatable with ONDCP Director John P. Walters
Bogot�� Colombia

January 16, 2002

John P. Walters: Thank you for coming in. I am pleased to be back in Colombia, as I was speaking to one of your colleagues before you came in. I first served in this capacity in the Office of Drug Control Policy during our president's father's administration. I first came to Colombia in 1989, in connection with our government's efforts to support your nation in regard to violent threats against the democratic institutions here by the drug cartels at that time.

I am here now as a part of my duties. I just recently took office in the beginning of December, and President Bush has asked me to do a review of our policies across the board in drug control, demand, and supply; to reaffirm those that are ongoing; to make adjustments, to improve things where that's appropriate; but also to strengthen and implement some of the initiatives he has already announced in connection with his campaign and his beginning year in office. He will make an unprecedented investment in demand reduction in regard to drugs. First, in treatment we will make historic increases in treatment; he is pledged to increase our overall spending by $1.6 billion over five years; that will start with the budget he will release at the beginning of February. We are also going to expand our prevention efforts. He wants to be personally involved in leading some of those efforts.

Question: Excuse me, the $1.6 billion is for -- ?

John P. Walters: It's an increase in treatment spending.

Our goal is to begin to radically reduce the demand for drugs in our nation, simultaneously and prompted in part by the terrorist attacks in our nation. We are looking at reorganization of our own border security in other enforcement agencies to do a better job against threats and to coordinate our responses both within our own government -- federal, state, and local -- but also with our partners and allies abroad, that you've seen some of already and we are looking at additional ways to do this.

And then on the international side we want to try to do a better job in supporting the programs that work, and moving money to better reduce the threat, and to support democracy where we have partners and opportunities.

And I'd also just want to make one other observation and then I am happy to take your questions.

One thing I am struck by, having come back after working in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the region and on the problem, is I know many people will argue that there is little or no progress here. But I am struck by quite remarkable changes that have occurred. In 1989, the spread of drug cartel organizations into the region -- Bolivia, Peru; the violence and the wealth associated with those organizations here in Colombia where the leaders of those organizations were listed as some of the wealthiest men in the world; the fear was that they could buy or kill anyone anywhere. We took precautions in the United States, because I believe there was fear that they could reach anyone, perhaps, and nobody wanted to tempt fate. What I am struck by is not only the reduction of the extent of those organizations' operations in the region, especially reductions in Peru and Bolivia, but that under pressure they have collapsed back to where they had most extensive resources in Colombia. But in Colombia the large drug cartel leadership have been brought to justice; they are either in jail or dead. So the strongest and most powerful leadership has been destroyed. Now, there are still real challenges, as you know.

But, in addition, we have made some significant, although we were going to try to make more dramatic progress in the United States on demand, we have, when I was there last, created a study using our demand information, and our supply information to get a concrete estimate on what Americans consume. We just released the latest version of that report last month, and I brought a copy of it because it suggests that the consumption in the United States in 1989 was estimated to be in cocaine about 576 metric tons; the estimate for the year 2000, or last year as available, is 259 metric tons; we reduced demand in the United States by an estimated 50 percent, roughly.

Now, there is more demand going to Europe, part of that is that the production is now more of it being seized, so that there is still too much production. But in terms of where we start, as I look at policy now, on the relationship, the cooperation on everything from extradition to operational matters, and interdiction; the cooperation on alternative development, on sharing information about treatment and prevention, demand reduction here and throughout the hemisphere, and throughout the world with the United States. I think our own president and leaders now are interested in attacking the demand-and-supply problem in a way that has not been possible before, [which] gives us an historic opportunity to reduce this threat to both the well-being of our peoples and the democratic institutions.

I also think that the bottom line is if you are in the drug business, it's time to get out.

I spent today a meeting with various members of your government, also talking with the Americans working here at the Embassy on the joint programs. I had dinner last night with President Pastrana. And, in each of these cases what I've tried to do is listen and ask them what they think are the opportunities now to further our cooperation, what adjustments can we make to make programs work better, and what remaining issues or problems should we be working on resolving, what we intend to continue the support to President Pastrana and your government, and we wish just to make that partnership as strong and effective as we can. I leave from here tomorrow morning to go to Mexico, where I will talk with Mexican officials with the same intention, as well as the Americans working in our programs there in Mexico City.

I'd be happy to take your questions.

Fabio Castillo, El Espectador (in Spanish): Precisely yesterday, the Washington Post carried an article referring to the specific and peculiar situation after September 11th; the paper said the activity of interdiction, of seizures of drugs coming into the United States, has dropped significantly. So, his question is, has there been a change of focus? Has September 11th led the U.S. government to change its focus towards terrorism, and in a way leaving aside interdiction against drugs?

John P. Walters: I would say two trends have happened from what we know. There have been instances where we have pulled resources for purposes of security in response to the terrorist attacks of the United States. And, we have had to try to manage where that affects things, such as drug interdiction or intelligence, and operations in connection with drugs; process of trying to cover for some lost assets, as we say.

But, the other is that we have taken significant steps to increase security on our borders, and in some cases we do have reports that traffickers have been discouraged from trying to push drugs across our border. In preparation for my trip to Mexico I've seen reports about concern about greater consumption along the northern border of Mexico as a result of drugs piling up that would be ordinarily transshipped to the United States. So, some of the reduction in seizures along our border are probably more the result of less drugs trying to be brought through, so the less to be seized, I would think, more in that zone rather than a reduction as a result of response to terrorist.

One of the things that we are looking at in my review are ways of better integrating and adjusting, given the combined demands now of our war on terrorists and terrorism, and maintaining support for the drug control effort as well.

Maria Teresa Ronderos, Semana Magazine: What is the situation now in terms of drug use of both, cocaine and heroine in the United States?

John P. Walters: I would say that if you look back over the last ten years, cocaine use has declined, not as rapidly as we would like, but it has declined. One of the things we are going to try to do is to accelerate that decline both through treatment and prevention. I think one of the reasons it has declined is that the consequences are better known in our country of the damage done by cocaine addiction, but also that those who are addictive have become sicker faster; there's a fairly extensive experience that that kind of stimulated addiction is not something that human beings can sustain over long years.

Heroin is a different matter; there are studies of heroin addicts [who] have had twenty, thirty or forty years of addiction, sometimes [with] periods of recovery, but [who] relapse into addiction. Heroin is a very, very insidious addictive drug. There has been concern because of the increase in heroin in the shift in the east coast of our country what we think is largely heroin from Colombia; dominating the market on the western part of our country heroin from Mexico; there has been concern on the usually high purity compared to the past that will make it more dangerous, more addictive, the possibility of starting use by inhaling, and not just starting with injection, which intends to discourage people initially in some regards.

At this point we have not seen a major increase in heroin addiction, but we also need to drive that down. We are all worry about the world trends on opium and heroin production, given the Eastern production capabilities in Afghanistan, Burma, and while that is not the principal source of heroin in the United States, of course, it is now world criminal market and we will be working in the efforts to rebuild the Afghani society to make sure that we do a better job on drug control.

Hernando Salazar, El Tiempo: Has Plan Colombia reduced the supply of drugs to the United States?

John P. Walters: I think there are signs that it has, although we've been only in the first year. I say that and stipulate that there's preliminary evidence here, but from the information we are able to get from our own efforts to measure sales on the streets of the United States, I think that the purity of cocaine in the United States is declining, it is not uniform but, of course the trafficking is divided into various groups, so some are probably having more trouble than others.

In addition, I think we see other signs of pressure on the organizations, both from here to the retail markets in the United States, although I would say it is preliminary and it has only been going on for a first year. So, much of this has been putting in place the resources to pressure the structure of the market. One of the things we want to do with our examination of current policies is reconfigure our efforts to focus on causing a disruption in the cocaine business as a market; we want to find vulnerabilities in the production, processing, shipping, and retailing of this where we think we can explain them, and emphasize those points. Plan Colombia was designed to do some of that with the various parts of it, we want to support that with our own interdictions efforts, and our efforts in the United States, in addition to the other demand reduction things we are going to try to do. So, our goal is to create a recession as rapidly as possible, and then a depression in the drug business.

Reporter, Cambio: Whenever we talk about any of the drug-related problems in Colombia, we always think in the guerrillas. Even a U.S. ambassador some time ago used the term "narco-guerrilla." Are there any plans to use the resources in equipment under U.S. assistance to Plan Colombia to fight insurgency as drug traffickers, is that part of the strategy you may have considered?

John P. Walters: Well, that has already been a part of the effort that has been ongoing; we have targeted those resources on activities of guerrillas and non-guerrillas involved in processing, moving drugs, shipping them our of the country, the money, the precursor chemicals and some of the infrastructure support in terms of aircraft and shipping, boats and other things. So, that's not new, we will continue to do that, and the money, however, has been focused on those activities that have to do directly with drug trafficking and is not been moved broadly across the guerrilla problem.

Fabio Castillo, El Espectador (in Spanish): Last year figures on drug consumption revealed that the use of synthetic drugs has taken over the use of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. As a result of that, is there a possibility that the strategy will change in terms of what happens abroad with the cocaine producing countries, given that the consumption of those new synthetic drugs is increasing, and are probably produced inside your own borders?

John P. Walters: The levels of consumption of synthetic drugs, metamphetamine, and ecstasy particularly, have increased in some areas. We are concerned about the rave increase in some areas, but their level of consumption does not approach the consumption of cocaine, a little on heroin, which affects a smaller number of people. We are working to find better ways to control that consumption, as well as specifically target prevention efforts on some of those drugs, because, specially ecstasy, become much to attractive to young people.

At this point we are not shifting effort to one to the other although we will expand effort on those drugs, some of which are produced in our borders, some of which are produced with precursor or chemicals that are refined in Canada from Europe, and Mexico. So, it is a different route, and there are different organizations, although some of the organizations have relationships with other trafficking groups, but right now the level of consumption for cocaine and heroin is still greater, and marijuana greater still.

Maria Teresa Ronderos, Semana: When you were appointed there was some discussion in the U.S. by NGOs and some Congressmen saying you were a hard-liner and that you would be more interested in fighting in the law enforcement side, and in the supply side of the problem, rather than treatment and prevention. But you have talked all the time about treatment and prevention, so what happened, were you a hard-liner?

John P. Walters: I actually don't believe that there is a kind of distinction some people believe between supporting law enforcement, supply reduction, and demand reduction. I started out in the Department of Education in our federal government working on prevention, I was speaking to your colleague. Before I came to this job I worked with charitable donors and charitable foundations on in small parts I had to do with the drug issue with contributions to prevention and treatment programs. Also, when I served in our president's father's administration, we produced the largest increases in treatment spending of any administration before or after, no matter how long they were in office. I was involved in negotiating those budgets, I just didn't happen to be on the payroll when it happened. I think that some people falsely believe that the support for both democratic institutions, which is really what drugs and drug addiction are a threat to, in the lives of free people, that there's something odd with supply and demand. One of my goals in this job is to close the gap people see here; to understand that in our country the criminal justice system is the single biggest institution structure getting people into treatment. The criminal justice system is the single biggest area in helping remove the threat that drugs cause, and the chaos they cause in poor communities where addiction and crime associated with drugs has destroyed economic structures in our country.

And, that we have a lot to share on the prevention and treatment side with other countries, because as you know Colombia has learned painfully, no country has never been a major supply or transit country over any period of time without developing its own domestic problems with addiction. Drugs are about addiction, and addiction is about destroying people's freedom, and their lives. That's why I think there's the underline basis for the foundation among free people and those who care about their citizens to cooperate.

But, I'd also like to leave you with the sense I am very optimistic about the circumstance we find ourselves in, not only have we built a maturity in our relationship with key partners like Colombia, Mexico now, on unprecedented opportunities for cooperation, but I think that, ironically, the terrible things of September 11th have brought Americans together in more seriously, and also made them more sensitive to their friends in the world; they're not indifferent; they're not disinterested; and they're not simply carefree. We have a real enemy, the enemy makes us also focus on what are we doing with our own lives, what are we passing on to our own children; we care more, and our president is going to be dedicated to capitalizing on that. I hope to come back and be able to meet with you and talk about the progress we are making in specific terms, both in our country and in the partnership with you and other partners in the hemisphere.

Thank you.

end transcript