Pubdate: 8 Feb 1999
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 1999 PG Publishing.
Contact:  http://www.post-gazette.com/

ACCOUNTABILITY PROMISED FOR DRUG EFFORT

Hammering home the need for a drug-control strategy that measures success
and failure, the Clinton administration is announcing a five- part plan
designed to cut the size of the nation's drug problem in half by 2007.

In a three-volume report to Congress, White House drug policy director
Barry McCaffrey said drugs cost the country more than 14,000 lives
annually, despite a nationwide effort that includes close to $18 billion
spent this year by the federal government.

President Clinton said that while "there is some encouraging progress in
the struggle against drugs . . . the social costs of drug use continue to
climb."

In a message to Congress, Clinton said that among the positive signs were a
growing view among young people that drugs are risky and a continuing
decline in cocaine production overseas.

"Studies demonstrate that when our children understand the dangers of
drugs, their rates of drug use drop," said Clinton.

The five parts of the plan are educating children, decreasing the addicted
population, breaking the cycle of drugs and crime, securing the borders
from drugs and reducing the supply of drugs.

The blend of strategies is aimed at reducing the use and availability of
drugs by 50 percent by 2007 and 25 percent by 2002. Achieving the goal
would mean just that 3 percent of the U.S. household population aged 12 and
over would be using illegal drugs. The current figure is 6.4 percent. In
1979, the rate was near 15 percent.

Vice President Al Gore said, "this strategy takes us into the next century
with a goal of dramatic reductions in the supply and demand for drugs and a
real chance of giving our children drug-free communities in which to grow up."

A major piece of the drug-control effort: an advertising campaign that
would generate more than $195 million a year in matching contributions from
media companies.

"The strategy seeks to involve parents, coaches, mentors, teachers, clergy
and other role models in a broad prevention campaign," said McCaffrey, head
of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

A cornerstone of the strategy is accountability for the wide array of
current anti-drug programs, with boosts for those that work and the ability
to identify swiftly and repair those that aren't producing results.

"In the past, Congress had been critical because there were no specific
measurements for success," said Bob Weiner, a spokesman for McCaffrey.
"There was some real heat in the government" resisting demands for
accountability, but "no longer do we only measure the people working the
issue and the dollars spent on it. Now you've got to prove bang for the buck."

The goals for the period ending in 2007 are to reduce the rate of crime
associated with drug trafficking and use by 30 percent, and reducing the
health and social costs associated with drugs by 25 percent.

McCaffrey also wants to expand alternatives to jail for drug users - an
approach based on studies showing that prisoners who get treatment are far
less likely to commit new crimes than those who don't.

"Efforts to break the cycle of drugs and crime will pay for themselves
through reduction in prison costs, social costs associated with drugs and
crime and through the money no longer wasted on purchase of drugs,"
according to the new drug-control strategy. 
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