DRUG CZAR NOTES DECLINE IN FLORIDA AND CARIBBEAN DRUG SMUGGLING

MIAMI- Drug smuggling in Florida and the Caribbean is down compared with
smuggling in Mexico and the Pacific, the nation's drug czar said Wednesday.

John P. Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy, said increased
enforcement efforts in Florida and the Caribbean have caused the shift of
smuggling to the Southwest. He said Florida still has a major role in the
import of drugs.

Walters, who took office in December, visited U.S. Customs at the Miami
Seaport and the Miami-Dade County Juvenile Assessment Center on Wednesday.

About 2,400 pounds a month of cocaine, heroin and other drugs have been
seized at the Seaport this year, a decline from the 3,830 pounds a month
seized last year. U.S. Customs Port Director Thomas Winkowski said that the
Seaport, with its upgraded technology to screen for drugs, is among the
most well-equipped ports in the country.

Walters estimates that around 30 percent of the cocaine shipped from South
America is seized before it enters the country.

"We're making it harder (to smuggle drugs). We're increasing the cost of
doing business," Walters said.

Florida, with so many miles of beaches and ports of entry, is a hard place
to protect from drug shipments.

"The key is intelligence and gaining knowledge of how these organizations
operate, because if we're going to allow legal commerce and legal passage
of people, we can't stop everyone," Walters said.

Walters' office started an advertising campaign linking drug use with
terrorism. He said that 12 out of the 25 groups that the State Department
lists as terrorist organizations also traffic drugs.

"Drug use in the U.S. is the single biggest source of terror to the
democratic forces in this hemisphere," Walters said.

Drug money funds terrorism, helping the rebels in Colombia as well as
al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Walters said. He said the United States needs to
support newly elected Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's efforts to combat
rebels by funding anti-terror efforts and training Colombian soldiers.

President Bush has set a goal of a 10 percent reduction in drug use over
the next two years and a 25 percent reduction in the next five years.
Walters said his office can meet this target by improving treatment and
awareness programs for young people and strengthening law enforcement.

"While (the reduction goal) is certainly ambitious, it's consistent with
the declines we've seen in the late '80s and early '90s," Walters said.
"We've done it with effective prevention efforts that've focused on young
people. We know that drug use starts with teen-agers."

President Bush has committed $1.6 billion to treatment programs over the
next five years, Walters said. He said that treatment programs in schools,
work places, families and religious institutions that pressure people to
not abuse drugs can be effective.

An advocate group is pushing a ballot proposition in Florida in 2004 that
would allow first-time drug offenders to go into treatment programs rather
than prison. Walters said he opposes this proposition, as does Gov. Jeb
Bush, because he believe it will ruin the state's drug court system.

He said Florida is a leader in the use of drug courts and diversion programs.

"If the premise of these proposals is that Florida or other states aren't
moving in the direction of sorting (serious from non-serious offenders),
that's a false premise," Walters said. "Some of the advocates say that the
jails are full of low-level nonviolent offenders. That's a lie."