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.