Pubdate: Tue, 29 Oct 2002
Source: Valley News Dispatch (PA)
Copyright: 2002 The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/valleynewsdispatch/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2285
Author: Chuck Biedka
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

NATION'S DRUG CZAR TO VISIT HIGHLANDS

HARRISON: John P. Walters insists that legalizing drugs raises more 
questions than it answers.

On Wednesday the nation's drug czar will tell Highlands High School 
students why they should shun illegal drugs.

Walters and U.S. Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Bradford Woods, will address an 
assembly of grades 9-12 students in a presentation not open to the public. 
Later a roundtable discussion will be held with parents, school officials 
and law-enforcement officers.

Heroin has killed three Highlands students from the Class of 2001. Two of 
the victim's mothers will participate in the event, a Hart spokesman said.

The assembly is one of many approaches Highlands is using to warn its 
students about heroin, crack, Ecstasy, and other dangerous drugs, said 
Superintendent Randall Kahler.

"No one approach works," Kahler said. "We do whatever we can."

He said the anti-drug talk came at Hart's request.

The anti-drug talk is one of many such meetings Hart's office has held 
across the district in recent years, said spokesman Brendan Benner.

Walters has been director of the White House Office of National Drug 
Control Policy since last Dec. 7.

The director is informally known as the nation's drug czar and he directs 
federal anti-drug programs and spending.

 From 1989 to 1991, Walters was the chief of staff for William Bennett when 
he was drug czar. When Bennett was the country's education secretary, 
Walters developed anti-drug programs for the Education Department.

Drug abuse cost at least $55 billion in 1998, not counting court costs, and 
drug deaths have doubled since 1980.

Legalizing drugs would remove penalties, reduce prices and increase drug 
demand, Walters said last summer.

When the Dutch decriminalized marijuana in 1976, there was little initial 
impact, he wrote.

"But as drugs gained social acceptance, use increased consistently and 
sharply, with a 300 percent rise in use by 1996 among 18- to 20-year-olds," 
he wrote.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom