Pubdate: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA) Copyright: 2001 San Jose Mercury News Contact: http://www.sjmercury.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390 Author: Christopher Marquis, New York Times CONSERVATIVE PICKED AS NEXT DRUG CHIEF WASHINGTON -- President Bush plans to name John P. Walters, a conservative who was harshly critical of the Clinton administration's efforts against illegal narcotics, as the new drug czar, officials said Wednesday. Walters, who was the top deputy to William J. Bennett, the drug czar in the last Bush administration, shares Bennett's emphasis on publicly stigmatizing drugs at home while mobilizing considerable resources -- including the U.S. military -- against narcotics producers abroad. 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 U.S. Sentencing Commission in 1995 to significantly reduce sentences for crack cocaine dealers. 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, Walters will succeed Barry McCaffrey, a retired general who sought to reduce the level of confrontation with drug-exporting nations and spearheaded an 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, Walters, 49, would oversee a staff of more than 150 and a budget -- including grant programs -- that amounts to nearly a half-billion dollars, officials said. 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Andrew