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Federal and state law-enforcement officials told a congressionalpanel in Arizona on Monday that efforts to combat drug traffickingfrom Mexico to the United States must include reducing the demandfor illegal drugs in this country, not just more enforcement. The officials cited numerous examples in which increasedcollaboration between law-enforcement agencies in the U.S. andMexico, especially when it comes to sharing intelligence, has beeneffective in combating international drug organizations that useArizona as a major corridor to smuggle marijuana, methamphetamineand heroin into the country. But they said more emphasis needs to be placed on reducing thedemand for drugs. "When I first started, I thought I was going to arrest my way outof the problem," said Elizabeth Kempshall, a former head of theDrug Enforcement Administration's Arizona office who is nowexecutive director of the Arizona High Intensity Drug TraffickingArea, a federal program that coordinates drug-control efforts amonglocal, state and federal law-enforcement agencies. "I was going to arrest every bad guy, and we were going toeliminate the drug-abuse problem," Kempshall said. "But I'velearned through experience and hard knocks that it has to be acoordinated approach between law enforcement, demand reduction andtreatment." Kempshall's comment came in response to a question from U.S. Rep.Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., during a bipartisan field hearing in Phoenixto look at ways to improve collaboration among law-enforcementagencies in combating international drug-smuggling organizationsduring a time of budget cuts. "We need to keep teaching ourchildren about the dangers of drug abuse," Kempshall said. Gosar had asked what could be done to stop the rise in superlabs inMexico that produce methamphetamine to be smuggled into the U.S. Matthew Allen, special agent in charge of Immigration and CustomsEnforcement in Phoenix, told Gosar, "You might find this surprisingcoming from someone in law enforcement," but addressing the demandfor illegal drugs in the U.S. is as important as cracking down ondrug-smuggling organizations. "It wouldn't get produced and it wouldn't come here if we didn'tuse it," Allen said. The comments reflect a divide among some policy makers andlaw-enforcement officials over the nation's strategy in its war ondrugs. Critics have noted that demand for illegal drugs has beenlargely untouched over the decades by billions of dollars spentattempting to halt their flow into the United States. But othershave been reluctant to let up on the fight against suppliers infavor of more demand-oriented policies, calling it a soft-on-crimestance. Brig. Gen. Jose Salinas, director of the Joint Staff of the ArizonaNational Guard, said a drug-prevention program run by the Guard atelementary schools is being eliminated because of military budgetcuts. He praised the drug-prevention program as an important partof the Guard's counter-drug strategy, which includes providingintelligence analysis and other support to the Border Patrol andother federal agencies. But the program's effectiveness "is very hard to quantify" and, asa result, is being cut, he said. The hearing, held at the Guard's headquarters in Phoenix, washosted by Reps. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz.; Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas;and Gosar. Lee said "one of the strongest messages I will take back toWashington" from the hearing is the need to do more about reducingthe demand for drugs. Quayle told The Arizona Republic after the hearing that he agreed. "We have to work on the demandside as well as the supply side," Quayle said. In 2011, anti-drug-smuggling initiatives in Arizona disrupted ordismantled 37 drug-smuggling organizations, Kempshall said. Theinitiatives resulted in the seizure of more than 1.1 million poundsof marijuana last year, up 118 percent from the year before, shesaid. Law-enforcement agencies also seized 1,600 pounds of meth and 560pounds of heroin last year in Arizona, up 88 percent and 1,017percent respectively, she said. I am an expert from cavitationrfslimmingmachine.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Mesotherapy Machine , SPA Capsule, Cavitation Slimming Machine,and more.
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