Pubdate: Sat, 07 Oct 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
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Author: Alison Mitchell

BUSH SAYS THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION WAGED A LACKLUSTER WAR ON ILLEGAL DRUGS

MARION, Ill., Oct. 6 - Gov. George W. Bush today accused the Clinton 
administration of fighting illicit drugs "without urgency, without energy 
and without success" and proposed $2.7 billion in new grants in the next 
five years to combat narcotics and provide drug treatment.

For the third consecutive day, Mr. Bush tailored his campaign to focus on 
ways to help parents protect their children from influences outside the 
home. This time his focus was not Hollywood entertainment or sexually 
graphic and violent Internet sites, but illicit drugs.

"The job of protecting our children falls to us - as parents," Mr. Bush 
said this morning in an address to several hundred supporters in Cedar 
Rapids, Iowa. "Yet we want to know that our government is on our side. We 
want to live in a society that supports our values and upholds our 
authority. We need allies, not adversaries. Schools that form character. A 
decent public culture. And leaders who set a good example."

After his speech, Mr. Bush flew to Illinois, en route to Florida, where the 
campaign has become highly competitive. He was greeted here by a crowd 
chanting, "No more Gore." A warm-up speaker, State Representative Lee 
Daniels, attacked the character of President Clinton and Vice President Al 
Gore, saying, "We are sick and tired of the lies and the immorality and the 
exaggeration."

Mr. Bush pushed his $1.3 trillion, 10-year tax-cut proposal, dismissing Mr. 
Gore's criticisms in the first presidential debate that the plan would give 
too much to the wealthy. "He loves pitting people against people," he told 
the cheering crowd. "You can't lead the nation by dividing people into groups."

And repeating his debate dismissal of Mr. Gore's statistics, he said, "No 
fuzzy math."

But the centerpiece of his day was his stand against drugs. Mr. Bush vowed, 
if elected, to set a goal of a "drug-free society."

He said that the nation needed to fight the spread of drugs "for one great 
moral reason. Over time, drugs rob men and women and children of their 
dignity and character. They are the enemies of innocence and hope and 
ambition."

He accused the Clinton administration of downgrading the battle against 
drugs, and drew a distinction between what happened in the 1980's under the 
administrations of President Reagan and his own father, and what occurred 
in the 1990's.

"From 1979 to 1992, our nation confronted drug abuse successfully," he 
said. "Teen drug use declined each and every year. It was one of the best 
public policy successes of the 1980's.

"All that began to change seven and a half years ago," he continued. "From 
1992 to 1997, teen drug abuse increased each and every year. Heroin use 
doubled. The age at which people began using that drug dropped from 27 in 
1988 to 18 in 1997."

Mr. Bush acknowledged that teenage drug use had leveled off in recent years 
- - the Clinton administration said that teenage drug use had dropped over 
that period - but he called drug policy "one of the worst public policy 
failures of the 90's."

He said that one of Mr. Clinton's first acts when he entered office was to 
cut the staff of the White House drug office from 146 to 25 people - "about 
half the size of the White House public relations operation."

He had kind words for Mr. Clinton's drug czar, retired Gen. Barry 
R.McCaffrey, but said, "There is no substitute for presidential leadership."

Robert Weiner, the spokesman for General McCaffrey, said Mr. Bush was using 
"ancient numbers." Mr. Weiner said that Mr. Clinton cut the drug office 
staff to 25 when he took office, as a part of a pledge to reduce the White 
House staff, but that he had since turned around, and the office now has 
154 staff members.

Mr. Weiner said that teenagers' drug use had not just leveled off but 
declined, and cited a Department of Health and Human Services' survey, 
which recorded a 21 percent drop in drug use by teenagers from 1997 through 
the end of 1999.

The Gore campaign charged in a statement that "using Washington-fuzzy math, 
Bush tried to create the false impression that under Clinton- Gore the 
budget on the war on drugs had been slashed."

To fight drugs, Mr. Bush proposed a series of grants, including $25 million 
for nonprofit groups that teach parents drug prevention, $25 million to 
groups that help small businesses fight drug use in the workplace, $350 
million for community antidrug coalitions, and $100 million to expand a 
federal school antidrug program.

He also promised to hire more border enforcement agents and said he would 
require prison inmates to take regular drug tests.

Mr. Bush also said he would seek to reduce cultivation of coca in Bolivia, 
Peru and Ecuador and opium in Southwest Asia by spending $165 million over 
five years for alternative crop development in the regions.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart