Pubdate: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Christopher Marquis TOUGH CONSERVATIVE PICKED FOR DRUG CZAR, OFFICIALS SAY WASHINGTON, April 25 - President Bush plans to name John P. Walters, a law-and-order conservative who was harshly critical of the Clinton administration's efforts against illegal narcotics, as the drug czar, Bush administration officials said today. Mr. Walters, who was the top deputy to William J. Bennett, the drug czar in the last Bush administration, shares Mr. Bennett's emphasis on publicly stigmatizing drugs at home while mobilizing considerable resources - including the American military - against narcotics producers abroad. Mr. Walters favors severe prison sentences for violent felons, marijuana smugglers and repeat offenders, but he views first-time drug users more leniently. He criticized a recommendation by the United States Sentencing Commission in 1995 to reduce sentences for dealers of crack cocaine significantly. The nomination, which officials said is imminent, comes as the Bush administration struggles to maintain cooperation with important drug- producing allies in Latin America. The United States this week suspended intelligence-sharing with the Peruvian air force pending an inquiry into Peru's downing of an unarmed plane carrying a family of American missionaries. Administration officials, moreover, are seeking to win the support of other South American nations that have voiced concerns about American-backed military buildup in Colombia. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr. Walters will succeed Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired general who sought to reduce the level of confrontation with drug-exporting nations and spearheaded a national advertising campaign aimed at convincing American youth that drugs ruin lives. As the new chief at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Mr. Walters, 49, would oversee a staff of more than 150 and a budget that - including grant programs - amounts to nearly a half- billion dollars, officials said. An important job of the drug czar is to scrutinize the antinarcotics programs of federal agencies and sign off on their budgets. President Bush has not decided whether to make the drug czar a cabinet level appointment, officials said, though several Republican lawmakers have urged the president to maintain the visibility of the position with cabinet ranking, a status General McCaffrey had. Before settling on Mr. Walters, the White House had considered several candidates, including Bill McCollum, a former Florida representative; Jim McDonough, the Florida drug czar; and Rick Romley, an Arizona district attorney, the lawmakers said. Mr. Walters' background as a chief of enforcement and supply reduction in the last Bush administration has raised the concerns of some that he will not focus enough on treatment and prevention. "Some of his positions in my own view need to be carefully considered by the confirmation committee," General McCaffrey said in an interview today. "I am hopeful to maintain a commitment to the bipartisan support for treatment programs." General McCaffrey, who said he has researched Mr. Walters' views, complained that Mr. Walters had voiced a concern "that there is too much treatment capacity in the United States, which I found shocking." Mr. Walters, who declined to comment on his pending nomination, has told associates that his enforcement experience will give him greater credibility on the softer aspects of drug reduction, including treatment. President Bush has repeatedly emphasized the need to reduce demand in the United States. Mr. Walters, who was the acting drug czar briefly in 1993, quit in protest when President Clinton slashed his staff to 25 from 146 and announced he would reorient anti-narcotics policy to focus on hard- core users, while de-emphasizing law enforcement and interdiction. In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1996, Mr. Walters criticized "this ineffectual policy - the latest manifestation of the liberals' commitment to a `therapeutic state' in which government serves as the agent of personal rehabilitation." In his Senate appearance, Mr. Walters outlined elements of what he said was an effective drug policy. He said the president should make use of the "bully pulpit" to heighten awareness of the dangers of drugs, and noted that President George Bush had used his first national prime-time address in 1989 to discuss the drug issue. Mr. Walters urged the United States to step up the battle against drugs at their source, in Latin America, and called foreign programs cheap and effective. He also advocated giving the military a lead role in interdiction efforts, stiffening federal marijuana penalties, and opposed federal financing for needle exchanges to reduce the spread of AIDS. A Michigan native, Mr. Walters is president of the Philanthropy Roundtable, a conservative association that advises more than 600 donors to charity. Before that, he was president of the New Citizenship Project, which promoted increasing the role of religion in public life. In the 1980's, he was a top aide to Mr. Bennett at the Education Department, then followed his boss into the drug czar's office at its inception, in 1989. Together with Mr. Bennett and John J. DiIulio - Mr. Bush's recent appointee to head a White House office on religious-based and community initiatives - Mr. Walters wrote a book: "Body Count: Moral Poverty and How to Win America's War against Crime and Drugs." The book, published in 1997, warns of the young criminals branded "superpredators," who come from broken homes, alienated communities and attack without remorse. Such criminals, Mr. Walters and his colleagues wrote, suffer from "moral poverty" and should face stiff and certain punishment. Society must protect itself, according to Mr. Walters, who displays little patience for those who say the nation's prisons are too full. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe