TWO VOICES ON BUSH DRUG POLICY

WASHINGTON - When President Bush ventured to Virginia recently for a
firsthand look at a successful drug-prevention program, he made it
clear that the most important facet of his administration's war on
illegal narcotics would be to reduce demand.

"The best way to impact supply of drugs coming into America is to
convince our fellow citizens not to use drugs in the first place,"
Bush told appreciative parents and teens gathered at the Vienna
Community Center in the Washington suburbs.

Bush pledged to double the amount of money spent on the federal
government's drug-free communities program over the next five years as
"part of achieving the goal of reducing the demand for drugs in America."

While Bush has emphasized the need to reduce demand through education
programs and drug-abuse treatment, his public action on the
consistently vexing issue has produced mixed signals, indicating the
administration intends to focus more on the punishment and foreign
interdiction end than had originally been supposed.

To direct the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bush has tapped Rep.
Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark., a former federal prosecutor who earned a
reputation for being particularly tough on drug cases. But the
nomination that really raised eyebrows was the president's choice of
John Walters to become the high-profile director of the White House
Office of National Drug Policy - the drug czar.

Walters, who served as the top aide to William Bennett, the nation's
first drug czar, in the late 1980s, has been a vocal critic of
drug-treatment programs, saying "there is too much treatment capacity
in the U.S." He has chided those who advocate increased spending on
drug treatment as "the last manifestation of liberals' commitment to a
therapeutic state in which government serves as the agent of personal
rehabilitation."

During his tenure as Bennett's lieutenant, Walters concentrated on
reducing the supply rather than the demand side of the drug equation.
He was a vocal supporter of U.S. interdiction in Latin America to cut
off drug supply lines and providing military aid to countries looking
to cut off the cultivation and manufacture of illicit substances.

Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of The Lindesmith Center Drug
Policy Foundation, a New York think tank that focuses on drug issues,
said Walters is likely to support "scaling back the government's
already modest commitment to treatment."

"Walters stands for the proposition that drug policy has nothing to do
with facts, science or public health," Nadelmann said. "It's all
about punishment to him."

Walters' public positions, Nadelmann and other critics maintain, seem
to run counter to Bush's expressed desire "to make sure that those who
are hooked on drugs are treated."

"We've got people that know no other life than drugs," Bush said.
"And a compassionate society is one that does something about drug
people who are addicted. And we're going to do so."

Walters, whose nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, said he
will follow the president's lead.

"We will help the addicted find effective treatment and remain in
recovery," he said. "We will shield our communities from the terrible
human toll taken by illegal drugs."