BUSH ASSAILS ADMINISTRATION'S ANTI-DRUG RECORD

MARION, Ill., Oct. 6 - George W. Bush harshly rebuked the Clinton
administration today for its handling of drug policy and offered his own
plan to pour $2.7 billion over five years into drug prevention and
treatment programs.

The crux of the Texas governor's speech was that the White House has placed
a low priority on drug control, erasing the gains made during the 12 years
of the Reagan and Bush administrations ending in 1993. Since then, Bush
said, drug use among teens has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels - a
charge that drew an angry response from the Clinton administration.

"Unfortunately, in the last 7 1/2 years, fighting drug abuse has ceased to
be a national priority," Bush said in a speech this morning at the Jane
Boyd Family Resource Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Drug policy has been
pursued without urgency, without energy and without success."

Bush said today that while drug use decreased every year from 1979 to 1992,
it has increased every year since then. While Bush acknowledged that some
drug use has "leveled off" in recent years, he said the fact remains that
more people are doing drugs at younger ages, while the use of hard
narcotics has proliferated to tragic levels, even in places such as rural
Iowa, which has suffered a methamphetamine crisis.

Bush said the number of high school seniors who smoke marijuana is at the
highest level in two decades and that daily use of that drug by
eighth-graders has increased 700 percent since 1992, while cocaine use by
teens has doubled over that same period.

In his most barbed comment, Bush referred to President Clinton's early
effort to reduce the number of employees at the White House Office of Drug
Control Policy from 146 to 25, "in other words, about half the size of the
White House PR operation. That says something about priorities." Bush did
not mention that staffing has since been increased.

Bob Weiner, spokesman for the drug control policy office, accused Bush of
using "ancient" numbers and said that among the first things Director Barry
R. McCaffrey did upon taking control of the office in 1995 was to increase
the number of staff members. The current total is 154.

Weiner also said that the office's budget rose from $16 billion in 1995 to
$19.8 billion this year. He chided Bush for ignoring two recent surveys
that showed a decline in drug use by teenagers. One showed drug use among
youngsters ages 12 to 17 down 21 percent between 1997 and 1998. And another
showed drug use by teenagers down 34 percent over two years.

"There has been a dramatic drop, thanks to a team effort among parents,
teachers, ministers, law enforcement officers and the media in conjunction
with the national drug control strategy," Weiner said.

In all, Bush proposed expanding or creating nearly 20 programs, including
increasing funding for community anti-drug programs, safe and drug-free
schools programs, community anti-gang efforts and initiatives to combat
drug use in prisons. His ideological centerpiece is the idea that
government should be used as a tool for empowering people and communities
to fight the drug war.

The campaign emphasized that more than a third of the money proposed -
about $1 billion - would go toward bolstering drug treatment programs. The
money would be used to conduct a state-by-state survey of treatment needs
and to close the estimated gap between the 2.1 million people who receive
drug treatment and the 5 million who need it.

Bush mentioned his January campaign visit to a renowned drug treatment
facility in Colfax, Iowa, where photographers snapped pictures of him with
recovering addicts under a large mural of Jesus. He noted that such
faith-based organizations and charities would be eligible for funding under
his plan.

"This is a cause I will lead," Bush said.

In endorsing increased spending on drug treatment, Bush finds himself in
tune with a growing national consensus that emphasizing improved treatment
that's accessible to more addicts is essential if the United States intends
to reduce drug use.

As Texas governor, Bush - along with stressing treatment - has emphasized
making drug laws tougher, something that was not a focus of today's
proposal. He has promoted the repeal of a law that provides automatic
probation for first-time offenders convicted of selling or possessing small
quantities of drugs. With new prison space becoming available during the
Bush years, the number of people incarcerated for drug violations has
increased from 17,000 to 28,000.

The state legislature during the Bush years funded treatment for 5,300
inmates, fewer than the number envisioned by Bush's Democratic predecessor.
Instead, Bush put much of his focus on faith-based treatment programs -
both in prison and outside - saying they can help change lives in ways that
traditional therapeutic programs cannot. Under Bush, the state allocated
money to a number of such programs.

The Gore campaign today accused Bush of using "fuzzy numbers," borrowing a
phrase coined by Bush to accuse the vice president of purposefully
misrepresenting numbers in their debate of tax and budget policies.

"Once again, Governor Bush has misfired in attacking the progress of the
past eight years," Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said in a statement, noting
that Gore has proposed $5.3 billion in spending over 10 years to fight
drugs. "Al Gore and the administration proposed the largest anti-drug
budget ever, and under this administration drug arrests are up and drug use
is down."

Bush has focused this week on the theme of giving parents the tools they
need to raise their children. This week, campaigning through the Midwest,
he criticized the entertainment industry for aiming violent and sexual
material at children and called attention to a program that filters out
pornographic and violent material when children surf the Internet.

After the event in Cedar Rapids, Bush traveled to Marion for a rally and
then to Tampa, where he will appear at events on Saturday before heading
back to Austin.

Staff writers Susan Schmidt, Peter Slevin and Ben White contributed to this
report.