Pubdate: Fri, 11 May 2001
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2001 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact:  http://www.boston.com/globe/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: John Donnelly

BUSH NAMES LAW-AND-ORDER DRUG CHIEF

WASHINGTON - President Bush named a drug policy director yesterday known 
for his tough law-and-order policies, but the president said that the most 
effective way to reduce the nation's supply of illegal drugs is to ''reduce 
demand.''

The apparent contradiction in Bush's appointment of John P. Walters, a 
former top aide in the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the 
president's call for greater emphasis on treatment and prevention, confused 
many specialists on drug use.

The analysts also noted something remarkable about Bush's speech in the 
Rose Garden: He never uttered the words ''drug war.''

''I don't remember a single major speech on drug policy by a president of 
the United States that did not use the term `war,''' said Joseph A. 
Califano Jr., secretary of health, education, and welfare under President 
Carter and now head of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse 
in New York City. ''We have never had a president talk about demand 
reduction, treatment, drug courts, about the role of families, as Bush 
talked about that today.''

Bush, who in the past has expressed an understanding of those in the grips 
of addiction based on his own experiences of drinking too much alcohol, 
instructed Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to make a 
state-by-state inventory of treatment needs, aimed at ''how to most 
effectively close the treatment gap in this country.''

While recreational drug use has fallen dramatically since the mid-1980s, 
the number of hard-core drug users has stubbornly remained at about 5 
million people. National studies suggest that more than 60 percent of them 
are not receiving any treatment.

In part because of the movie ''Traffic,'' which depicts the devastating 
impact of drug use on the family of the fictional US drug policy director 
played by actor Michael Douglas, and in part because many law enforcement 
officials have concluded that the 30-year ''war on drugs'' has failed 
miserably, drug policy specialists forecast much more support in Congress 
for drug treatment.

Yesterday Bush highlighted an increase of $1.1 billion in the budget to 
counter illegal drugs, pushing it to a total of $19 billion. That includes 
new money for treatment, local antidrug coalitions, and research on 
prevention and treatment.

Walters, 49, was the top deputy to the first US drug policy director, 
William J. Bennett. In the past, he has favored tough prison sentences for 
violent felons, drug smugglers, and repeat offenders. He also is a strong 
believer in ''coerced treatment,'' which includes drug court sentences for 
treatment that, if not followed, result in jail terms.

He now faces confirmation hearings in the Senate.

Subtly jabbing at the efforts against drugs during the Clinton 
administration, Walters said in a short statement yesterday, ''Our country 
has made great progress in the past in reducing drug use, and we will do it 
again.

''Our efforts rest on the knowledge that when we push back, the drug 
problem gets smaller,'' he said. ''This fact is beyond question today, even 
if it is not always beyond denial.''

In ''The Fix,'' a history of America's war on drugs, author Michael Massing 
wrote about how in the first Bush administration, Walters ''became taken 
with the glamour of the drug war ... and began immersing himself in such 
arcana as radar capabilities, herbicide potencies, and Caribbean choke 
points.''

During his first tenure at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 
Walters helped fashion a $2 billion, five-year program to help Andean 
countries fight drugs.

In an interview yesterday, Massing said that ''with Walters, the question 
is, is the past prologue?''

''If it is, I think we are in for a continuation or even escalation of the 
drug war, particularly in its international dimensions,'' Massing said.

Last year, after protracted debate, Congress approved a $1.3 billion plan 
to fight drugs in Colombia and the Andean nations. But since then, several 
moderate Democrats and Republicans have expressed reservations about the 
wisdom of deepening US involvement in a complex jungle war.

''If Walters realizes the climate has changed politically on the drug war, 
which I think it has, then perhaps he could change direction,'' Massing 
said. ''But I'm not optimistic.''

Califano, a liberal Democrat, said people should focus on Bush, rather than 
Walters.

''The drug czar is a White House staff job,'' said Califano, who attended 
the Walters announcement and was praised by Bush for his policy work on 
drug abuse. ''The drug czar is going to do what the president tells him to 
do.''

''He's been tagged anti-demand,'' the official said. ''But he was head of 
supply reduction before, and so it wasn't surprising he would talk a lot 
about reducing the supply of drugs. I think he'll push the treatment agenda 
now.''

Coincidentally yesterday, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that 650 
people working in the Executive Office of the President had been tested for 
drugs before they were employed. First in line, back in January, were Bush 
and Vice President Dick Cheney, he said.

A White House aide said all 650 passed the test.

Globe reporter Anne E. Kornblut contributed to this report.
- ---
MAP posted-by: GD