CLINTON'S DRUG CZAR WILL RESIGN

Cabinet: Mccaffrey Will Leave Jan. 6. His Decision Surprises Some
Colleagues Because He Had Said That He Could Stay No Matter Who Becomes The
Next President.

WASHINGTON--Barry R. McCaffrey, the impassioned but often controversial
architect of the Clinton administration's drug policies for the last five
years, announced Monday that he will step down from his White House post in
January, two weeks before a new president is inaugurated.

The move surprised some of the retired Army general's associates in
Washington, who believed that McCaffrey might seek to continue as director
of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy after a new
government takes office in January.

McCaffrey mentioned to colleagues that he could "stay on in either
administration," according to an associate in the anti-drug effort. "He
said that a dozen times," the associate said.

McCaffrey had cultivated a relationship with Texas Gov. George W. Bush and
his advisors over the last year or so and his tough, law-and-order image
make him potentially attractive to whichever party wins the White House
next month.

But instead, McCaffrey said in an interview, he intends to write a book on
drugs, do some college-level teaching--probably at West Point--and leave
the next administration with a "clean slate to move forward" with its own
drug policy.

"There's still a lot of work to be done," McCaffrey said. "The bottom line
is, this is not a war; it's a cancer affecting American communities, and it
will be resolved by patiently building coalitions in our communities" to
combat drugs.

McCaffrey, 57, is the third Cabinet-level official in recent months to opt
for an exit before the Jan. 20 inauguration, as top officials and
lower-level political appointees scramble to figure out their post-election
plans.

McCaffrey said he plans to leave his post on Jan. 6. He is considering an
offer to teach government policy at West Point beginning Jan. 23. Officials
said they do not expect an interim successor to be named.

Among the chief priorities for his White House successor, McCaffrey said,
should be the expansion of drug treatment in health insurance plans and the
escalation of anti-doping measures for young athletes experimenting with
steroids and other drugs.

McCaffrey said that one of his proudest achievements is a 21% decline in
adolescent drug use in the last two years, as measured by the government in
a household survey. That drop-off, he said, reflects the success of
combining toughened drug interdiction and enforcement with broadened and
better-funded access to drug treatment programs.

But McCaffrey's critics in the drug reform community challenge both his
statistics and his strategies, saying that his bully-pulpit approach to the
job has set back the nation's drug policy amid an escalation in the use of
such drugs as methamphetamine and ecstasy.

"We're happy to see him go, that's for sure. But it's also sad to see all
the havoc that he's left in the process," said Chuck Thomas, spokesman for
the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, a nonprofit group advocating
decriminalization.

McCaffrey angered liberal groups with a number of controversial positions.
He blocked federal funding of needle-exchange programs for intravenous-drug
users, opposed the medicinal use of marijuana and pushed a
multimillion-dollar media campaign aimed at sprinkling--and in some cases
editing--anti-drug messages into television shows.

"McCaffrey took a father-knows-best approach to marijuana. He illegally
censored doctors who recommend medical marijuana and doctored TV scripts
about marijuana," said Graham Boyd, director of drug policy litigation for
the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued McCaffrey to block
implementation of his policies on medicinal marijuana.

"Rather than coerced orthodoxy, we need honest discussions in America" to
find ways of stemming the tide of drug use, Boyd said. "Nobody thinks our
current policies are working."