GRASS: WAR ON DRUGS PART 5 OF 5
President George W. Bush (the Bush II administration) was sworn into office in early 2001, and named John Walters as drug czar. For many years, Walters was an education bureaucrat who headed the Drug-Free Schools program in America, but also served under William Bennett for awhile during the Bush I administration. A religious man who believes in faith-based initiatives, Walters sees the drug war as never having been fought hard enough, and regards criticisms about harsh imprisonment policies and racial disparities as "myths." His priority has been to escalate U.S. military involvement in Latin American and cut back on funding for domestic drug treatment and education.
GEORGE W. BUSH'S DRUG CZAR
John Walters, in 2001, inherited America's most massive counter-drug program ever -- Plan Columbia, which involves mainly military aid to train police and troops to eradicate plantations of coca, - the raw material for cocaine - by aerial spraying. US legislation allows the aid to be used against drug lords but not for any other campaigns - such as the government's fight with left-wing rebels. The primary drug lords that Plan Columbia targets belong to the the Cali Cartel, which rose to dominate the international cocaine and heroin market after the 1993 death of Medellin drug cartel leader Pablo Escobar. As the cartels have been broken up, the Farc and the paramilitary AUC have moved into the drug business. Colombia remains the world's largest producer of cocaine and a major supplier of heroin to the US. Director Walters has been at the forefront of Bush Administration efforts, both in the media and with legislation, to tie the drug war in with the war on terrorism. His blog can be found at www.pushingback.com.
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