War on Drugs Becomes Lower Priority June 19, 2002
News Summary
The war on drugs, which was a top priority of the U.S. government in recent years, has been minimized as attention shifts to terrorism, Scripps Howard News Service reported June 13.Recently, 400 FBI agents assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were transferred to the war on terrorism. In addition, Coast Guard cutters that used to patrol the Caribbean for drug smuggling have been relocated to protect warships and tankers in U.S. ports.
Under President Bush's government reorganization, Border Patrol and Customs agents would be reassigned to the new Department of Homeland Security.
DEA spokesman Will Glaspy said the refocusing isn't expected to cause a flood of drugs into the United States. He said the war on drugs goes hand-in-hand with the war on terrorism, since profits from illicit drugs are funding terrorists.
Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Republican Conference, said changes to the war on drugs needed to be made anyway because it wasn't being fought effectively. "There was never a concentrated effort to win the war on drugs," Watts said. "Have we won it?"
Tim Lynch, an analyst with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, said state and local law-enforcement officials should handle drug-war activities.
"It makes no sense for federal agents to raid marijuana clubs in California when there are terrorist sleeper cells plotting attacks against us with weapons of mass destruction," Lynch said.
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