10 The above mandate of official duties will be promulgated in the Foreign Affairs Manual. International narcotics control activities and means of improving their effectiveness are under continual review within the Department of State in conjunction with the Congress and other concerned U.S. Government agencies. Assistant Secretary of State Falco has already begun to appear before Congress to present the Department of State's fiscal year 1980 budget request. As these hearings continue, we welcome fully the opportunity to present our overall strategies and policies, as well as the individual programs and activities which support them. We are confident that these hearings will provide a useful exchange between the Department and the Congress, allowing the necessary cooperation to make even more effective our narcotics control programs. I have included with this report a copy of Assistant Secretary Falco's remarks before the Foreign Relations Committee on the fiscal year 1980 international narcotics control authorization. The international narcotics control program remains of deepest concern to me personally and to the Department as a whole. You may rest assured that we are giving this important work the highest priority within our foreign policy framework. Sincerely yours, CYRUS VANCE. 10 The above mandate of official duties will be promulgated in th Foreign Affairs Manual. International narcotics control activities and means of improvi their effectiveness are under continual review within the Depart of State in conjunction with the Congress and other concerned Government agencies. Assistant Secretary of State Falco has alres. begun to appear before Congress to present the Department of State fiscal year 1980 budget request. As these hearings continue, we welor: fully the opportunity to present our overall strategies and policies, well as the individual programs and activities which support the We are confident that these hearings will provide a useful exchan between the Department and the Congress, allowing the necessit cooperation to make even more effective our narcotics control pr grams. I have included with this report a copy of Assistant Secretary Falco's remarks before the Foreign Relations Committee on the sc year 1980 international narcotics control authorization. The international narcotics control program remains of depe concern to me personally and to the Department as a whole. You rest assured that we are giving this important work the highest ority within our foreign policy framework. Sincerely yours, CYRUS VANCE TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE MATHEA FALCO, ASSISTANT SECRE- Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I am pleased to have the opportunity to be here today and to discuss with you the Department of State's international narcotics control budget request for fiscal year 1980. In keeping with Government-wide fiscal restraints, our fiscal year 1950 request of $37.8 million is lower than the $38.5 million which the Congress appropriated for the current fiscal year. Our requested budget is designed to maintain the momentum of current international Tarcotics control programs without undertaking major new initiatives. During the past 2 years, the principal thrust of U.S. narcotics control efforts both domestically and abroad has been to control heroin, the most destructive of the illicit drugs entering the United States. In trol objective has been to prevent heroin from reaching our borders by support of this total effort, our primary international narcotics concurtailing its supply as close as possible to the source of origin. We have made considerable progress towards that goal. illicit nature of the trade, our best intelligence estimates show a Although exact statistics are impossible to obtain because of the United States over the past 2 years. According to Drug Enforcement steady, significant decline in the actual amounts of heroin entering the lowest point this decade-averaging only 3.5 percent compared to 6.6 Administration (DEA) figures, street level heroin purity is at its These two criteria are the traditional means of measuring drug availpercent in 1976. Reflecting this scarcity, heroin's price has reached an historie high level of $2.19 per milligram, nearly twice the 1976 figure. ility and are clear indications of significantly reduced supplies of heroin for American drug abusers. a parallel decline in its abuse. According to National Institute on Decreasing availability of heroin has contributed significantly to Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates, the number of heroin addicts in the United States has declined steadily from more than 500,000 in 1976 purity levels, fewer of those abusing heroin are dying or being injured to approximately 450.000 today. Morcover, due to greatly reduced from overdose. U.S. heroin injuries have decreased from 5,200 in the first quarter of 1976 to 2,200 during the last quarter of 1978, a 58 percent reduction. During that same 2-year period, overdose deaths per month have declined 80 percent. In human terms, 1.000 fewer Americans died of heroin overdose in 1977 than in 1976. When final figures are compiled, we expect them to reveal a similar decline in 1978. The Government of Mexico's narcotics control program, which we Support, continues to contribute greatly to the marked reduction in heroin availability and abuse in the United States. A comparison of the situation in 1975-76 and 1977-78 will show how striking the prog (11) rather than incarceration of Americans found with minute quantities of drugs as well as closely monitor and expedite the judicial process for jailed Americans, have reduced the United States prisoner population in Bolivia to less than 20. A similar treaty with Canada became effective at mid-year and so far 29 American prisoners from Canada have returned to the United States. After much difficult negotiation a final draft of an exchange of penal sanctions treaty with Turkey was initialed by Deputy Secretary Christopher during his visit to that country last month. It is anticipated that once this treaty has been signed and ratified it will resolve the plight of those Americans who have been incarcerated there for an extended period of time, facing lengthy prison terms. An exchange treaty with Panama has been signed and is pending ratification. The Department has submitted a draft proposal to the Peruvian Government and this draft is in its final stages of deliberation by the legislative and judicial bodies there. The Department has also entered into preliminary discussions with countries such as Thailand, West Germany, and Denmark, and is exploring the possibilities of utilizing the existing European convention as a potential vehicle for establishing transfer of sanctions agreements with several European countries at once. Posts abroad continue their efforts in areas such as conducting seminars for consular officers on the legal and judicial systems of the host country and preparing detailed fact sheets for distribution to new prisoners so that Americans arrested will at least have a fair idea of the type of judicial system with which they will be dealing. Certain posts are continuing to utilize the services of local attorneys on a contract basis to provide expertise and guidance in local law to United States consular officers. The Emergency Medical and Dietary Assistance Program continues to be a useful tool for consular officers abroad in their efforts to ensure that Americans incarcerated abroad have access to emergency medical treatment when needed and sufficient vitamins or other dietary supplements to maintain an adequate standard of health during incarceration. During the year the Department dropped its rigid requirement that all Americans imprisoned abroad be visited by a consular officer on a monthly basis. This decision was made partly because of the strain on Department resources but primarily because of a number of convicted prisoners in the more advanced nations who neither desire nor derive any measurable benefits from a monthly consular visit as opposed to a bi-monthly or quarterly visit. Each Ambassador or Chief of Mission was asked to survey the situation in each country, and to establish an appropriate visitation schedule. About 80 percent of our envoys decided to retain a policy of monthly visits, and in those areas where bi-monthly or quarterly visits. were substituted, posts were instructed to devote as much of the manpower savings as necessary to more frequent visits during the arrest and interrogation stages, and greater attendence at trials and hearings. This slight shift in emphasis is both proper and important, particularly given the pattern of prisoner mistreatment discussed later in this report. The Department has continued its efforts to develop bilateral consular agreements, particularly with nations which have significant American populations or protection and welfare problems. Although progress in this area must be measured against the seemingly slow pace of detailed negotiations, the Department is making some progress and hopes to make more. Bilateral conventions are particularly important in the case of arrested Americans, because it is through such conventions that arrestees can best be provided the rights of prompt notification of arrest to embassies and consulates, and be assured rapid access by a consular officer. The computerized Consular Arrest System in the Citizens Emergency Center has now completed its first full year of operation, and, as indicated by the attached statistical reports (5 segments), the system has proved to be an invaluable tool to consular officers both here and abroad and also to Management in evaluating and projecting trends in a given area, country or world-wide. The first segment attached is a world-wide summary which indicates for each country of the world the number of Americans detained at the beginning of the year, the numbers arrested and released during the year, and the number under detention at the end of 1978. The totals. reflect an increase of about 7 percent in the number of arrests during calendar year 1978 as opposed to calendar year 1977. However, the number of Americans actually detained abroad has shown a small but promising 2 percent decrease. This decrease in the number of Americans detained abroad is due largely to the transfer of sanctions agreements mentioned earlier, but also in part to continuing efforts to encourage the deportation of Americans arrested for minor drug offenses abroad, and to the efforts of Foreign Service posts to speed up the judicial process for arrested Americans. This report also shows that approximately 50 percent of all arrests abroad of Americans in 1978 occurred in only five countries: Mexico, The Bahamas, Canada, The Federal Republic of Germany, and The Dominican Republic. In addition, close to 50 percent of all Americans detained abroad as of December 31, 1978 were in three countries, Mexico, Canada, and The Federal Republic of Germany. An encouraging note is the fact that the number of persons in custody in those three countries fell by about 15 percent in 1978. The second segment, entitled "Prisoner Profile Report", outlines, by country, the average ages, sex and the drug vs. other charges for all Americans arrested in that country last year. It is interesting to note, for example, that the number of males arrested last year increased only 4 percent from calendar year 1977, while female arrests increased 11 percent. Males, however, still far outnumber females, constituting 86 percent of the Americans arrested. During 1978 females were arrested at an earlier average age (28.8 years) than males (30.8 years). The number of charges filed against Americans is higher than the number of arrests due to the normal incidence of multiple charges filed in a number of cases. The total number of charges filed against Americans is up by about 10 percent, and the number of drug charges is higher. Despite these increases in the number of charges, the actual count of persons arrested on drug charges is declining. In 1977 drug charges accounted for approximately 46 percent of all arrests, while the percentage last year dropped to 43 percent. This promising reduction occurred primarily during the second half of the calendar year, after media outreach programs were conducted by the Consular Affairs Bureau during the spring and summer months. The third segment, entitled "Charges Report" indicates the types of crimes Americans were charged with last year and their frequency of occurrence. As mentioned above, narcotics violations constitute the largest single charge filed against Americans. There were some noticeable decreases in charges such as robbery, rape, espionage, smuggling and terrorism, which were in turn offset by increases in assault, contraband (primarily alcohol in Moslem countries), customs violations, serious traffic violations and vagrancy. The fourth segment, entitled "Drug Charges Reports," provides an in-depth look at the categories of drug violations and the types of drugs involved. Marijuana remains the illegal substance most frequently involved in narcotics arrests abroad, 58 percent of all drug arrests in 1978. Additionally, of this number, over 38 percent involved less than one ounce of marijuana or cannabis. The Department has been making every effort to communicate this information to potential travelers, particularly younger travelers, who have the misconception that drug laws abroad are easier or not as rigidly enforced as they are in the United States. While drug-related arrests occurred in 70 countries around the world, the top five countries continued to be the Bahamas, Mexico, The Federal Republic of Germany, The Dominican Republic and Canada. Well over half (57 percent) of the drug charges brought against Americans occurred in these five countries and 91 percent of all the drug-related charges are concentrated in only 10 countries. Another serious problem is the relatively large volume of arrests occurring in three Caribbean countries-The Bahamas, The Dominican Republic and Jamaica. These three countries accounted for 568 arrests in 1978 or about 20 percent of the total number of arrests of Amercians abroad in that year, a 6 percent increase over 1977. Most of these arrests were drug-related (76 percent) and 50 percent of these drugrelated arrests were for the possession or consumption of less than one ounce of marijuana. The fifth segment, entitled "Mistreatment Report" attempts to place some numerical perspective on the problems of mistreatment of prisoners. The Department is happy to report that incidents of mistreatment, both alleged and confirmed, decreased about 5 percent from last year. Of particular significance is the fact that instances of confirmed mistreatment, that is, those cases where consular officers were able to verify mistreatment from physical observation, medical reports, eyewitness accounts or host government investigations, decreased by over 60 percent from the 1977 estimates. As a case in point: in Mexico, where historically the largest number of mistreatment reports, both alleged and confirmed, originated, the number of confirmed cases of mistreatment during 1978 was only one-third of the 1977 figure. Most instances of mistreatment occur during the arrest and interrogation stages (83 percent) as opposed to the later detention stages. For this reason, the Department continues to push for prompt notification by arresting officials, and for immediate access to American arrestees by consular officers. It should be emphasized that this segment includes psychological harassment, as well as physical abuse, as mistreatment, and also con |