BUSH SET TO NAME WALTERS TO POST

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) plans to name a
conservative known for his tough approach on drugs to head the White House
drug policy office, a government official and others said Friday.

John P. Walters is undergoing final background checks and could be named
next week to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, those
familiar with the nomination said.

Walters had been the office's deputy director for supply reduction when it
was headed by William Bennett during the administration of former President
Bush.

Reached by telephone, Walters said he had had discussions with the
administration, but declined to comment further.

The office has been without a permanent director since Barry McCaffrey
resigned in January.

Walters has stressed the importance of criminal penalties for drug users
and opposed the use of marijuana for medical purposes. He has also favored
the drug certification program, in which nations are judged by their
anti-drug efforts. The program has been a sore point in U.S.-Mexican relations.

Walters' positions have put him at odds with treatment advocates who view
drugs as more of a health problem.

"Fear of getting caught (and the public humiliation involved) is what
casual users themselves say was most responsible for the dramatic reduction
in casual drug use that occurred in the past seven years," he wrote in 1993.

John Carnevale, a drug policy analyst who worked under both Bennett and
McCaffrey, said Walters "has an ideology but he's open-minded and welcomes
new ideas."

Walters is president of the Philanthropy Roundtable, a national donors
group. He also is a co-author-with Bennett and John J. DiIulio Jr. of the
book "Body Count: Moral Poverty and How to Win America's War Against Crime
and Drugs." DiIulio is now the head of the White House Office of Community
and Faith-Based Initiatives.

The White House has not said if it plans to make the drug policy director's
position a Cabinet-level post, as it had been while McCaffrey headed the
office. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have urged Bush to keep it in
the Cabinet.

The drug policy office oversees more than $19 billion in anti-drug
programs, working with dozens of agencies.