cannabisnews.com: US Drug Policy Maker in China US Drug Policy Maker in China Posted by FoM on June 17, 2000 at 09:19:48 PT From The Associated Press & Reuters Source: Mercury Center The United States' senior anti-drug policy-maker arrived Saturday in China to forge strategies for combating drug trafficking and setting up effective treatment programs.Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House National Drug Control Policy Office, is the first U.S. ``drug czar'' to visit China. His five-day stay, months in the making, comes just ahead of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's stopover in Beijing next week. The two visits are part of intensifying diplomacy between the United States and China, whose relations have only slowly recovered from the U.S. bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia 13 months ago. But the missions also underscore the difficulties in reviving ties.Deep, persisting differences over human rights, arms proliferation and Taiwan have prompted Washington and Beijing to seek common ground on issues like environmental protection and fighting crime and drugs.Over two days of meetings in Beijing with China's national police force, McCaffrey said he hopes to broaden cooperation in law enforcement, sharing intelligence on trafficking in heroin and methamphetamines and exchanging experiences on treatment programs.To advance that effort, he will tour a treatment center in Kunming, capital of southwestern Yunnan, ``an embattled frontier province that is a gateway for the massive amounts of heroin ... that are produced in Burma,'' McCaffrey said shortly after arriving in Beijing.While little of that heroin feeds American addicts, the trade threatens important neighbors, McCaffrey said. China, like the United States, also faces rising addiction to methamphetamines, McCaffrey said.``This drug issue has such profound impact on allies who are important for other reasons: because their political, economic future is vital to regional stability,'' McCaffrey said. ``Standing with China will pay huge benefits to the region and therefore indirectly to the United States.''McCaffrey, who will also visit Hong Kong, Vietnam and Thailand, described trafficking networks in the region as organized, complex and international.``It has actors from Nigerians -- who are now in considerable numbers in Chiang Mai, Thailand -- Russians, Americans, Chinese. It's a pretty aggressive, violent and corrupting international criminal organization of enormous breadth,'' McCaffrey said.Yang Fengrui, director of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security's anti-drug office, reported in March that China had 681,000 drug addicts last year, a 14 percent increase over the year before.While believed to underestimate the problem, the figure shows China's growing problems with drugs. Using harsh measures, the government wiped out rampant opium addiction in the first decades of communist rule. But drug abuse returned over the last 20 years as free-market reforms brought increased trade and travel.Yang, the Chinese official, raised an alarm in March over a surge in drug trafficking into China from Southeast Asia. Last year, he said, police confiscated 5.3 tons of heroin and 16 tons of methamphetamine, also called ``ice.'' The amount of ``ice'' seized was 10 times higher than the previous year.McCaffrey has touted declining drug use in the United States. But he told the United Nations last month that the United States last year still had 5.1 million chronic addicts, that $57 billion are spent on illegal drugs and that 52,000 Americans die from drugs every year.Beijing (AP) Published: June 17, 2000 © 2000 Mercury Center. Related Articles:We're Winning the Drug War - If We Say Sohttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6084.shtmlReport Targets Drug Office http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6082.shtmlPOWs Under Fire http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6076.shtmlCannabisNews McCaffrey Archives:http://cannabisnews.com/news/list/McCaffrey.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #9 posted by FoM on June 18, 2000 at 22:00:42 PT I Agee Kaptinemo Hi Kapt and everyone! I hate that man's smiling face too. I cringe when I need to use it. I wish I could think of an icon that would be better. Maybe one with their web site or something like that. Let me know if you or anyone gets any ideas. I mean that really! I'm beginning to think he doesn't have one good bone in his body.Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by kaptinemo on June 18, 2000 at 14:53:25 PT: One more thing... GOD, I HATE SEEING THAT MAN'S SMILING FACE! Given what's happened to Peter McWilliams, who's joined Ismael Mena, Esequiel Hernandez, David Scott, Patrick Dorismond, and all the others sacrificed on his altar of a Drug Free America, that smile should be a reminder to everybody that this jerk really likes his 'work'. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on June 18, 2000 at 07:18:48 PT: Barry in China Oh, this is really rich. Barry, the Mao Zedong wannabe, is going to 'make nice' with the butchers of Tiananmen Square. More and more, he is showing his true colors. That he admires the Chinese methodology of addiction treatment should have every freedom loving person reaching for a rifle; you'll need it if he gets his way.You see, they used to shoot or behead few addicts in front of the others they had rounded up, and then ask the rest if they wanted to live. Then put them through cold turkey in their jail cell, while applying a huge dose of propagnada as to who got them hooked, i.e. the imperialist powers (true in the beginning) as 're-education'. That was the Chinese methodology of addiction treatment.(Something to ponder: have you ever wondered why, with all their overwhelmingly superior numbers of men in the Chinese Army, they never took Hong Kong by force? They could have, very early in the game, right after the Communists won their civil war. But that would have been killing the golden goose, and they knew it. You see, thay had to have some place to launder the money *they made from opium production*. That's all Hong Kong was in the early days; an opium transhipment point. But as time went on, they divested themselves of the overt hands on aspect and got into the more covert money laundering, after taking a page from the Western Powers who started it all. Don't you think that with the near-total control the Han Chinese have on their borders, they can't stop the Burmese made opium from reaching the heroin processing plants in Yunan and Guangzhou provinces? The Communist Chinese have been major players in the heroin game since the late 40's. Barry's going to make another deal with the Devil... but then, he's used to that by now, I guess. Must have twenty sets of Nomex underwear, he needs it so much.For those who are interested, some links:http://china.candidemedia.com/dispatches/thirteen/13featurea.htmlhttp://www.csun.edu/~hfspc002/xxx.htmlhttp://www.fieldingtravel.com/dp/dangerousthings/drugs.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by legalizeit on June 17, 2000 at 20:31:46 PT Welcome home, Barry!!! (Attent-HUT!) Barry's home! What better place for the Bizarro to call home than a nation led by Communist pigs with a long record of human rights violations! Now, if they could find a reason to keep him over there and send the other drug warriors to meet him...What a waste of tax money, paying for this bigoted bigshot to travel worldwide and spew his worthless anti-drug pablum to others!If he had an ounce of sense in his military-crazed noodle he would realize how much corruption and suffering drug prohibition is causing all over the world.>environmental protection and fighting crime and drugs.I find it laughable that these are mentioned in the same sentence. Fighting drugs causes vast environmental harm, from the forest areas destroyed by clandestine growers in attempts to make hidden fields of prohibited crops, to vast amounts of fuel wasted by the Coast Guard and others performing surveillance and chasing traffickers, to more insidious evils such as indiscriminate spraying of herbicides and experimental fungi.Of course, the environment is always the big loser in ANY war... [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on June 17, 2000 at 18:52:19 PT I am so sad but determined! Hi Jean,I am really sad. I find a news article and it should be posted but I just don't think any news is much more important then taking time to reflect on what Peter meant to us. I was so proud to know him even though it was only thru his emails. He sometimes sent us pretty pages and sometimes educational and sometimes down right out there in left field and those made me laugh. He was far more then we ever had a chance to know and that is why we are grieving. We are grieving for what we know we will never learn from this fine man.Peace, FoM! [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Jeaneous on June 17, 2000 at 17:49:33 PT: Yes.... Yes FoM,It is the article. I too am really feeling this death personally for some reason. It was a shock to me to hear of his death... and then how he died..... the man deserved so much better. I can not find any peace with his death... even though he suffered from his illnesses.. he was a much needed part of our lives. He gave so much to all of us and I think to everyone he could personally... a personal hi in the e-mail... I miss him already. Just need to figure out how to tunnel these feelings into action for our cause. Guess it might take a bit of time for that. Then it's time to pick up where he left off and continue on.Thanks FoM, I agree with Richard that it's wonderful to have a place to voice our thoughts and opinions. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on June 17, 2000 at 17:26:56 PT Is This The Article? Hi Jean,Here is the article I believe you are talking about accept I got it from The Boston Globe. Thank you for your kind words about Peter. He is missed by so many and I sure am one of them.Peace, FoM!Report Targets Drug Office http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6082.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Jeaneous on June 17, 2000 at 17:08:58 PT: Barry's turnover In the Sacramento Bee yesterday there was a story about the high rate of turnover that the ONDCP has. The article stated that the employee turnover rate for McCaffrey is a whopping 38%. Was nice to see a story that wasn't meant to glorify McCaffrey. Funny thing is though, sure can't find the story on the online edition of the Sacramento Bee. I wrote them about the fact they had no coverage of Peter's death so today they have a small obituary.Still would like to see this man fired or prosecuted... not sure which.... [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 17, 2000 at 09:35:21 PT More News Articles More News Articles On Barry McCaffrey:http://newsindex.com/cgi-bin/process.cgi?query=McCaffrey [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: