NEW STRATEGY NEEDED TO COMBAT DRUG TRAFFIC, ABUSE, PANEL SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030006-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 24, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030006-7
WASHINGTON TIMES
24 April 1956
New strategy needed to combat
drug traffic, abuse, panel says
By John McCaslin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Efforts to stop the flow of illicit
narcotics across the U.S.-Mexican
border are "failing miserably," the
head of a congressional panel said
yesterday as he called on President
Reagan "to assemble the best minds
in the country" to develop a new na-
tional strategy.
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, chairman
of the Select Committee on Narcot-
ics Abuse and Control, said he will
soon introduce legislation to estab-
lish a White House Conference on
Narcotics Abuse and Control. The
bill will be co-sponsored by House
Judiciary Chairman Peter W. Rodino
Jr., a New Jersey Democrat.
The conference, said Mr. Rangel,
a New York Democrat, "would plan
a stronger and more effective na-
tional strategy in the area of drug
abuse control."
He told reporters that while the
administration continues calling for
programs to reduce the demand for
drugs, "out of the entire $18 billion
Education [Department] budget,
only $3 million is allocated for drug
abuse education."
His remarks came as the narcot-
ics committee released findings
from its recent Southwest Border
Study Mission, which examined the
rapidly increasing drug trafficking
along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico
border.
The narcotics committee's rank-
ing minority member, New York
Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, said the
Mexican border area is "un-
guarded" Calling for an immediate
federal response, he said, "Drug
traffickers have now opened another
major front to flood every city, town
and school district in our nation with
heroin, cocaine and marijuana"
The committee's report said that,
with the limited number of Customs
and Immigration personnel, the im-
mense volume of traffic across the
border makes it virtually impossible
for vehicles, pedestrians and cargo
to be inspected, despite reports that
the bulk of the heroin and much of
the cocaine enters the United States
there.
,Drug trafficking from Mexico has
increased sharply, the committee
found. Mexico supplies about 42
percent of the heroin and up to 35
percent of the marijuana consumed
in the United States, while some 35
percent of the cocaine entering the
United States goes through Mexico,
even though no cocaine is thought to
be produced there.
The committee said that while the
United States should concentrate in-
ternally on drug abuse education
and prevention, diplomatic pressure
must be applied to all drug-
producing countries to eradicate
crops of illicit narcotics.
Other recommendations are that:
? EPIC, the El Paso Intelligence
Center, should become an intelli-
gence center cover_ ing all sources of
narcotics, an t e CIA and National
Security Agency should be required
to coordinate with the nine federal
agencies now providing narcotics in_
to tgence on the southwe order,
? All aircraft departing the
United States should be required by
law to file flight plans, and all air-
craft flying into this country should
be required to clear Customs.
? At points of entry, Customs
should use an effective search plan
that does not pressure Customs offi-
cials to move people, cars and cargo
across the border rapidly.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504030006-7