BUSH UNVEILS SHIFT IN DRUG STRATEGY

Stress To Be Placed On Cutting Demand

President Bush plans to expand the nation's drug treatment programs after
the completion of a four-month-review that he launched yesterday in what
advocates for the addicted called a landmark step toward addressing a
chronic shortage of treatment.

The announcement marked a shift in the national drug strategy from an
emphasis on reducing the supply to a greater effort to cut demand.

Bush spoke during a Rose Garden ceremony to designate John P. Walters as
the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Bush's
statement of commitment to treatment salved some opponents of Walters, who
has been criticized for stressing enforcement and narcotics seizures over
prevention.

Bush is proposing $245 million more for treatment and treatment research
next year than is being spent this year -- a 7.7 percent increase -- and
$1.6 billion more over five years, including money for therapy aimed at
adolescents and teenagers.

A 1998 federal survey found that 5 million chronic drug users in the
country needed treatment, while 2.1 million were getting it. Bush said he
was ordering a four-month, state-by-state review to determine "how to most
effectively close the treatment gap in this country."

"My administration will continue to work with nations to eradicate drugs at
their source, and enforce our borders to stop the flow of drugs into
America," Bush said. "However, the most effective way to reduce the supply
of drugs in America is to reduce the demand for drugs in America."

Walters, 48, who has been president of the Philanthropy Roundtable, was
chief of staff and later deputy director of the drug office under
then-President George H.W. Bush. If confirmed by the Senate, he will become
a member of Bush's Cabinet. Walters said his goals include helping "the
addicted find effective treatment and remain in recovery."

"We will shield our communities from the terrible human toll taken by
illegal drugs," Walters said. "We will stop illegal drug use and the drug
trade from funding threats to democratic institutions throughout our
hemisphere."

Retired Army Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who was drug office director from
1996 through this January, said after reviewing the plans Bush released
yesterday: "They're putting dollars where their mouth is."

Administration officials said the new money for treatment will be backed by
enforcement programs that in some cases will throw people in jail if they
fail to follow court orders for treatment. Drug courts, which can offer
treatment instead of incarceration and which will be expanded under Bush,
will carry out the threat through a program known as "coerced abstinence."

"We've got to make sure that those who are hooked on drugs are treated,"
Bush said later, during a speech to an anti-drug group at the Vienna
Community Center in Fairfax County.

Other parts of what Bush called "a new approach to drug policy" include the
creation of a Parent Drug Corps, to mobilize parents and families against
illegal drug use, with funding of $25 million over five years. Bush's
budget also includes a $41.5 million increase for the National Institute on
Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws issued a
statement calling Walters a "hard-liner." However, Mitchell S. Rosenthal,
president of Phoenix House, the nation's largest nonprofit provider of drug
treatment, called the announcements "very encouraging."

Two simultaneous four-month studies of treatment programs will be carried
out by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft and Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. Bush said one of his goals is to have
"drug-free" federal prisons, but officials said no timetable has been set.

John J. DiIulio Jr., director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives, was given 30 days to compile a list of federally
funded drug programs being carried out in community centers, houses of
worship and other neighborhood locations. "We certainly think they will
have a relatively greater role," DiIulio said.

In a second major criminal justice announcement, Bush will unveil a program
on Monday to hire 113 new federal prosecutors and to provide $75 million to
state governments in the next year in an effort to ensure tougher sentences
for felons who are later convicted of fresh gun offenses.

The program, which Bush will announce in Philadelphia with Mayor John F.
Street (D), will be a national version of Virginia's "Project Exile" and
other similar initiatives focusing on tougher penalties for gun offenses.
The president will propose a model program but will not specify an approach
that each U.S. attorney must take, an official said.

The administration also said that Bush has required White House officials
to pass a test for drug use, which had likewise been required under
President Bill Clinton. It said Bush and Vice President Cheney were the
first to be tested in January, although neither of them is required by law
to do so. Officials said 650 people were tested as a condition of
employment, and 127 have been randomly tested since then. A senior
administration official said no one has failed.