WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- The war on drugs in the United States appears to have been superseded by the war on terror, a report says.
The Los Angeles Times says U.S. military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan have left major gaps in the drug interdiction efforts in the United States.
"The (Pentagon) position is that detecting drug trafficking is a lower priority than supporting our service members on ongoing combat missions," the Department of Defense said in a budget document sent to Congress in October.
The number of flight-hours over Caribbean and Pacific Ocean routes used to smuggle illegal drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and heroin have been slashed by more than 62 percent over the past four years, the newspaper said. The Times said the Navy is also deploying one-third fewer patrol boats in search of smugglers.
At the same time, the Pentagon has reclassified the drug interdiction effort as part of the war on terrorism with intelligence data showing growing ties among terrorists, drug dealers and organized crime, the newspaper said.
