DRUG POLICY LEADER IS NAMED

Iowa's new drug policy coordinator is a longtime county sheriff who says he
isn't daunted by the prospect of state budget cuts.

"At the county level, with property taxes, we lived through that, too,"
said Marion County Sheriff Marvin Van Haaften, who was appointed Wednesday
by Gov. Tom Vilsack to lead his Office of Drug Control Policy.

""I've lived through some real stressful times," he said. "I can offer some
bits of wisdom as we face tough decisions on the state level."

Van Haaften, 57, a Democrat who lives near Pella, has worked in the Marion
County Sheriff's Department since 1977. In December, he received a surprise
call from Vilsack, asking him to spearhead the state's anti-drug efforts.

"It's not a job I sought," he said. "I was honored by the governor calling
me up. That's humbling."

Van Haaften, who will commute to Des Moines from his Marion County family
farm, begins his new job Tuesday. He replaces Bruce Upchurch, who was among
six agency directors fired by Vilsack in November at the start of the
Democratic governor's second term.

"Marvin Van Haaften is a dedicated peace officer and an innovative leader,"
Vilsack said in a prepared statement, adding that the sheriff "has a
special understanding of the issues affecting rural law enforcement."

The challenges will be great. Last year, the number of Iowans who sought
treatment for methamphetamine use hit an all-time high. Police took nearly
three times as much of the drug ecstasy off the street in 2002 as they did
in 2001. Officials also are bracing for the arrival in Iowa of a more pure,
more expensive and more addictive form of meth called ice.

Warren County Sheriff Jim Lee said Van Haaften, the 1996 president of the
Iowa State Sheriffs and Deputies Association, is up to the task.

"I hate to see him leave as a neighboring sheriff," Lee said. "On the other
side of that coin, I'm sure he'll do an excellent job in the state. He's
knowledgable of drug problems in Iowa."

Van Haaften said his county, which neighbors Polk County, has seen a lot of
methamphetamine activity and has joined with Des Moines and other central
Iowa law enforcement agencies in the Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force.

The sheriff knows his new job will be a learning experience. While he
understands drug enforcement, his new job also deals with treatment and
prevention.

Van Haaften said he'll take six months to learn from his staff and assess
the state's drug problems and needs. Until then, "I feel inadequate to
spell out exactly what our problem is and how we should be handling it," he
said.