HEADLINE: BUSH APPOINTS MORAL CRUSADER TO FIGHT DRUGS

THE BUSH administration is expected to nominate an old-fashioned policy
hawk as the country's new "drugs tsar" despite debate on the
effectiveness of America's war on drugs.

John Walters, a political conservative who believes drugs are a moral
issue and have nothing to do with health or social policy, is likely to
have his nomination as head of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy confirmed in days. With it could come a raft of initiatives
favouring punishment over treatment at home and military intervention
against the drug cartels of Latin America.

The selection of Mr Walters coincides with several other indications
that President George Bush intends to take a tough line against
drug-users, throwing ever more of them into jail and refusing to fund
state-sponsored treatment centres.

In recent weeks, the Department of Education has announced it will
investigate the drug backgrounds of students seeking government loans.
Congress has also discussed increasing criminal penalties for using
ecstasy.

The new hardline stance in Washington is dismaying drug reform
activists, many of whom had seen signs of change when Mr Bush gave a
television interview in January promising to take another look at
mandatory minimum sentences imposed on first-time drug offenders. They
were also cautiously optimistic about Tommy Thompson's appointment as
Secretary of Health and Human Services, since he has spoken out against
excessive incarceration of addicts and, as Governor of Wisconsin,
sponsored needle-exchange programmes for addicts.

That optimism has now all but evaporated. Ethan Nadelmann, director of
the Lindesmith Center, a leading drug-reform group based in New York,
said: "We've seen one step forward on mandatory minimums, but three or
four steps back on other issues."

The reformers also point to expensive military operations such as the $
1.3bn (pounds 900m) Plan Colombia as a dangerous waste of money. Many
were indignant when a US missionary plane was accidentally shot down
over Peru last month, killing a mother and her seven-year-old daughter,
because a surveillance plane mistook it for an airborne drug
consignment. "Killing innocent people is not an acceptable price to pay
on behalf of a strategy that has failed," Mr Nadelmann said.

Mr Walters has spent most of the past decade in the drug control office.
Although it is not yet clear whether his post will retain cabinet rank,
he will control an annual budget of $ 22bn (pounds 15bn), covering
everything from military hardware to law enforcement on the Mexican
border.

The hardline is also striking in light of the questions over Mr Bush's
own possible drug use as a young man. During the presidential campaign,
he refused to answer questions about cocaine use in his youth.

Mr Nadelmann said: "It is hard to believe that some of the younger
senior staff in the administration do not have some past experience with
marijuana and other substances."