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sent down a team of specialists to train JDF/JCF crews the herbicide. Actual spraying began in late July 1987.
in using
The Government of Jamaica has been running a series of powerful anti-narcotics television commercials. An opinion poll published early in the year
early in the year revealed that half of those polled opposed the Jamaican government's anti-narcotics efforts.
Jamaican statistics show that 834 hectares of marijuana were destroyed from January through June 1987, compared to 442 hectares during the same period last year. The U.S. will continue to provide support for Jamaican efforts. INM funding will contribute to making the JDF'S helicopter assets more reliable, and we will continue to press them to use these helicopters in eradication activities.
Jamaican Coast Guard activities did not result in any vessel seizures from January to July 1987. Increased maritime surveillance, however, may have forced traffickers to increased use of commercial containers as a smuggling technique. The newly-trained Jamaica Contraband Enforcement Team has had a number of successes seizing marijuana located in US-bound containers. Jamaica Defense Force/Coast Guard vessels participated with the U.S. Coast Guard in a joint interdiction operation in June 1987. INM-funded repair work will enable the JDF/CG's vessels to spend more time at sea if fuel and personnel constraints can be overcome.
Jamaican statistics indicate that 149,113 kilos of marijuana and about three kilos of cocaine were seized or destroyed during the first half of 1987. This compares with 25,790 kilos of marijuana and 628 kilos of cocaine seized or destroyed during the same period in 1986. Nearly 2,000 narcotics-related arrests took place during the period, compared with just over 100 during the first six months of 1986.
A needed amendment to Jamaica's basic Dangerous Drugs Act of 1984 has passed both houses of Parliament and is expected to take effect later this summer. The law will substantially increase the penalties for trafficking in narcotics.
PAHO'S USAID-financed Epidemiological Study on Drug Abuse Patterns is expected to be completed by fall 1987.