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CNN Saturday Morning News
DEA Administrator Says Oregon Needs Federal Help to Fight Drugs
Aired April 27, 2002 - 09:18 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Now to the front lines in America's war on drugs. Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Asa Hutchinson says Oregon needs federal help to fight the spread of illegal drugs. This after his look at the state's efforts this week.
John Becker of KGW reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN BECKER, REPORTER, KGW (voice-over): The nation's top generals in the drug war chopper over the remnants of a super meth lab outside Salem.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what methamphetamine. Now, if it's a real good manufacturer, this would be white.
BECKER: One capable of pumping out at least 20 pounds of meth a month, supplying enough hits to feed hundreds of users. Agents busted this operation two years ago. It marked the first takedown of a major meth producer in Oregon.
ASA HUTCHINSON, DEA ADMINISTRATOR: Well, we're having tremendous success in it. I mean, the fact that we've been able to reduce overall drug use in the last 20 years by 50 percent.
BECKER: Successful drug busts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fourteen men and nine women.
BECKER: To successful drug treatment programs. The nation's drug czar tours a nationally acclaimed live-in program in Portland for meth, alcohol, and heroin addicts. Life Change transforms criminals into clean, capable citizens.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just don't give up on an addict.
BECKER: Addicts who've stuck with the program three years have yet to relapse. That's the good news. But the nation's latest strategy handbook for the war on drugs features some stark shortcomings. Drug use among young people hasn't changed in a decade.
So is the war on drugs just for show, really a waste of money and time? JOHN WALTERS, DRUG POLICY CHIEF: Does anyone believe that they'd be better off if society gave up, if it legalized drugs, if it didn't try to provide treatment, if it turns its back? I don't think a decent society does that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, TV COMMERCIAL)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I helped the bomber get a fake passport.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECKER: And the government's launching a new $180 million anti- drug ad campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, TV COMMERCIAL)
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I helped kill a policeman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECKER: It targets young people, it ties drug use to support for terrorism.
New messages, bigger busts. The Bush administration's banking on both to have an impact in Oregon and across the country.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: That report came from John Becker of KGW, one of our CNN affiliates in Oregon. And thanks for that.
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