DATE=10/5/1999 TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT TITLE=DRUG CZAR IN L-A NUMBER=5-44421 BYLINE=MIKE O'SULLIVAN DATELINE=LOS ANGELES CONTENT= VOICED AT: INTRO: U-S Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey, who is visiting Los Angeles, says the United States and Mexico are cooperating effectively in the war on drugs. Correspondent Mike O'Sullivan reports the official encouraged students, and enlisted the help of an athlete, in the fight against substance abuse. TEXT: Mr. McCaffrey, who directs the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says the southwestern United States is a transit point for cocaine from Mexico. The Western United States is also a major source of illegally grown marijuana, and California produces half of the nation's methamphetamines. Local law enforcement officials say Mexican drug cartels are increasingly active in producing and distributing drugs in the United States. Mexican bankers have been convicted in U-S Courts of laundering drug profits. Some foreign commercial firms have also been implicated. But Barry McCaffrey says the problem is international, and drug funds leave a dirty trail of corruption. ///FIRST MCCAFFREY ACT /// We need to stop talking about the problems of Mexico dealing with drugs and of Colombia, and instead talk about individual accountability and businesses being held accountable for criminal activity. The Mexican government is trying to protect their own 100-million people and their own children and their own work force from drug abuse. The problem isn't lack of commitment by (Mexican) Attorney-General Madraso. The problem is that there are huge, dangerous, corrupting criminal organizations operating across these national borders. /// END ACT /// Mr. McCaffrey says just six-percent of the U-S population use illegal drugs, according to surveys. But the size of the market is huge. The nation's 16- million users spend more than 50-billion dollars a year on their habit. Mr. McCaffrey says such profits threaten corruption in the judiciary, the police and customs service -- in the United States, Latin America and elsewhere. In response to calls that drugs like marijuana be de- criminalized, the official says the Clinton administration remains opposed to this. In his meeting with reporters, Mr. McCaffrey criticized the governor of New Mexico, a neighboring state to California. That official, Gary Johnson, recently urged that most narcotics be legalized. Mr. McCaffrey called the comment "irresponsible." /// SECOND MCCAFFREY ACT /// The problem isn't that they're illegal. The problem is that they're ferociously addictive, and they make people act in a compulsive manner. And they make them unemployable. And they get them involved in permanently altered, impaired brain function. That's the problem with these drugs. /// END ACT /// Mr. McCaffrey met with 25-thousand students while in Los Angeles. They are part of a program called DARE, which encourages young people to avoid violence, gangs and drug use. He also met privately with former Olympic track star Carl Lewis, enlisting the athlete's help in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs in the Olympics. Carl Lewis told V-O-A that "doping" remains a problem. /// LEWIS ACT /// It's a tremendous problem because it isn't a matter of numbers, in terms of most athletes taking it. Most athletes are not taking drugs. But when you deal with five of the best, when you step on the starting line of 100 meters, that's five of eight. That's a huge percentage. So people look up to them because of their performances and they try to follow them in many cases. /// END ACT /// Carl Lewis joined Barry McCaffrey in calling for stricter drug testing of Olympic athletes, by a full- time independent agency. Both men say performance-enhancing substances like steroids undermine the integrity of athletics. (Signed) NEB/MO/TVM/gm 05-Oct-1999 18:39 PM EDT (05-Oct-1999 2239 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America .