Johnson has had legal and drug problems since leaving basketball and was once given an 18-month jail term and 4 years of probation for a cocaine arrest.

He said cocaine arrests accounted for much of the rise.

All over the country, according to legal aid officials, an escalation of cocaine arrests is pushing the criminal justice system to its limits, making it more difficult to try other kinds of cases.

But a few American and Mexican officials say they noted that cocaine arrests during his tenure fell significantly from the previous year.

One way is to look at a variety of imperfect but plausible proxies, including cocaine arrests, emergency-room visits and deaths.

St. Martin's said it had lost faith in Mr. Hatfield, whose book included anonymous accusations that Mr. Bush had covered up a youthful 1972 cocaine arrest.

Crack arrests decreased slightly from 38 percent of all cocaine arrests in 2001 to 36 percent in 2002.

In between cocaine arrests, Mr. Zarif helped the police - as well as he could, he told them - in their fruitless search for her.

Venezuelan General Arrested With Caracas newspapers now carrying daily stories of cocaine arrests, several cases stand out for their prominence.

A 1987 cocaine arrest landed him in jail for repeated parole violations.