Source: Reuters
Pubdate: 11 Jul 1998
Author: Donna Smith

CLINTON: U.S. MUST BREAK DRUG, CRIME CYCLE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton Saturday said the nation has to do
more to break the cycle of drugs and crime and urged Congress to approve
money for more testing and treatment programs.

"If we want to continue to make communities safer we simply must get more
crime-committing addicts to kick the habit," Clinton said in his weekly
radio address. He said a study released Saturday shows that more than half
and as many as three-quarters of people arrested for crimes test positive
for drugs.

A Justice Department report released Saturday showed that crack cocaine
abuse, which ravaged many communities in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is
declining. But it showed abuse of other drugs rising. Specifically it said
use of methamphetamines, stimulants known as crank, is rising in the West.

"The Justice Department study also shows that we must do more to make a
clean break from the use of illegal drugs," Clinton said. He said federal
grants will help some 150 communities set up drug courts that will seek to
help nonviolent offenders break their drug habits.

"To stop the revolving door of crime and narcotics, we must make offenders
stop abusing drugs," Clinton said.

Under the drug court program, which Clinton said was expanded from a
pioneer program that Attorney General Janet Reno helped set up in 1989,
nonviolent offenders can get court-supervised help in breaking their drug
habits.

Those who agree to submit to regular testing and stay clean from drugs can
avoid spending time in jail. If they fail to stay clean they are subjected
to full punishment for crimes, Clinton said.

Clinton said that money approved by Congress this year to fight the
methamphetamine problem will be used to finance new community policing
initiatives in six Western cities where the drug's use is on the rise.

Clinton also urged Congress to approve some $85 million in federal money he
requested to help expand the drug court idea and to finance other drug
testing and treatment programs for parolees and prison inmates.

"I know all members of Congress, regardless of party, want drug use and
crime in America to keep going down," Clinton said. He noted that Speaker
of the House Newt Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, participated in an
anti-drug event with the president in Atlanta Thursday.

Clinton said the best way to combat crime and drugs is for "Congress to
work with me in the remaining days of this legislative session to create
even more drug courts and to expand mandatory testing and treatment of
those who commit crimes."

In the Republican radio address Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, Republican of Mississippi, accused Clinton of being a bystander
instead of a leader and said Democrats were deliberately trying to tie up
legislation so they can accuse the Republican-led Congress of doing nothing.

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Checked-by: Mike Gogulski