Source: Reuters 
Website: http://www.reuters.com/ 
Pubdate: Sat, 2 May 1998 
Author: Joanne Kenen, Reuters

HOUSE REPUBLICANS VOW TO MAKE U.S. DRUG-FREE

WASHINGTON - House Republicans Thursday unveiled a package of bills to 
combat drug abuse and vowed to make America virtually drug-free by 2002.
At a packed rally in one of the most ornate Congressional hearing rooms, 
House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other top Republicans unveiled several drug 
bills, some focusing on community-based drug programs, others seeking to 
stamp out drug production overseas and a third series aiming to hold 
anti-drug agency officials more accountable.

Citing 14,000 deaths a year directly related to drugs and another 6,000 
indirect deaths, Gingrich said if that level of casualties was happening in 
Bosnia, Iraq or Korea ``we would be up in arms.Instead, he said, 
``people shrug their shoulders.''

Gingrich said drug use went down during the ``Just Say No'' years under 
Republican Presidents Reagan and Bush, and has risen under President 
Clinton. He called for an intense, four-year drive to lower drug use and 
said he had told House appropriators to make it their top priority.

Before the Republican event, House Democrats said drug policy had 
traditionally been bipartisan and urged Gingrich to keep it that way.

The Republican rally was not a bipartisan event, but was not a hard-edged 
partisan attack on Democrats either. ``I liked the tone,'' White House 
anti-drug chief Barry McCaffrey said in a telephone interview.

``We want to build bipartisan support for this effort,'' he said, adding he 
would examine the bills ``very carefully.''

Rep. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, who chaired the House Republican task 
force on drugs, said the country had ``veered off course'' in the 1990s and 
had to send out a clear message that ``we have zero tolerance for illegal 
drugs.'Drugs are not an American value,'' he said.

House Republicans have said they want to twin anti-drug and anti-teen 
smoking efforts, but most of the speakers at the rally did not mention 
tobacco and Gingrich mentioned it only briefly.

House leaders say they still plan on incorporating an anti-smoking 
initiative into the drug bills, although the proposals unveiled Thursday 
did not deal with smoking.