BUSH EXPECTED TO NAME CONSERVATIVE TO TOP DRUG POST

President Bush 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.