Pubdate: Sat, 07 Oct 2000 Source: Quad-City Times (IA) Copyright: 2000 Quad-City Times Contact: 500 E. Third St., Davenport, IA 52801 Fax: (319) 383-2370 Feedback: http://www.qctimes.com/write_edletter/writeletter.html Website: http://www.qctimes.com/ A LOOK AT BUSH'S DRUG PLAN Here's a closer look at a few of the items in Texas Gov. George W. Bush's drug policy plan: Help countries such as Bolivia, Colombia and Peru promote crop substitutes, providing an additional $15 million over five years. Improve intelligence and surveillance to catch drug smugglers before they reach U.S. borders. Continue working with Mexico on drug interdiction. Increase funding for interdiction by $1 billion over five years, and counter-drug intelligence by $50 million over five years. Hire more border enforcement officers and focus a "reformed" Immigration and Naturalization Service on the job of defending the borders. Create a Parents Drug Corps, funded with $25 million for nonprofit agencies or groups that educate parents about drug prevention. Increase funding for the Safe and Drug-free Schools Program by $100 million over five years. Award $25 million in grants over five years to nonprofit groups that work with small businesses to create drug prevention programs. Provide $350 million over five years in grants to "double" the effectiveness of community anti-drug coalitions. Expand anti-gang programs modeled after the Boston Gun Project, which targets an entire gang through arrests, parole revocations and other tactics. Go from 27 to 100 cities at a cost of $25 million over five years. Do a state-by-state assessment to see where drug treatment is lacking; increase federal funding by $1 billion to meet the needs. Allow charities and community drug treatment organizations to receive federal funds without "unnecessary bureaucratic oversight." Provide $250 million over five years in competitive grants to residential substance abuse programs for teen-agers. Ensure that federal prisons are drug-free, provide more resources for drug prevention, testing and enforcement and require inmates and parolees to take regular drug tests. Increase funding by $50 million over five years for drug courts that allow dismissed or reduced sentences in exchange for court-monitored drug treatment. Launch a federal methamphetamine initiative and fully fund the Drug Enforcement Administration's meth lab cleanup program. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D