MEDIA REACTION ON DRUGS, JULY 21, 2003

UNCLAS TEGUCIGALPA 001722

SIPDIS

STATE FOR WHA/PDA (JGREENBLATT); WHA/CEN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP PREL KPAO PGOV IZ HO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON DRUGS, JULY 21, 2003


1. Op-ed by Julio Escoto in Tegucigalpa-based moderate daily "El
Heraldo" entitled "Trapped". "When did the US get trapped by
drugs? Definitely during the 1960s and 1970s with the hippie
generation and after the Marines got back from Vietnam, when the
Americans got a chance to experience the horror of war and the
deceit of their political class. Then, drugs became the spiritual
leaders of that generation, tired of unfulfilled promises and
fragile leadership."

"Drugs aren't unknown to the American culture, they have always
been part of the menu of that growing empire. However, there is a
slight difference: in previous decades drugs addiction was a
discrete activity, now it isn't. According to the DEA, there are
about twenty million Americans smoking marijuana in a regular
basis, forty million have tried cocaine at least once and no less
than seven million have tried crack, amphetamines, LSD or other
chemical or natural drug."

"The figures are overwhelming, the drug business is the most
profitable activity in the US. That is why the Colombian,
Mexican, Israeli, Turkish and Russian mobs have made the US a
paradise to sell drugs. As a result, Mexico and Central America
have become the natural route to transport drugs to the US. It's
believed that about 60% of the cocaine sold in the US has passed
through this region."


Palmer