DRUG CZAR NOMINEE REVERSES HIS VIEW ON POLICY ISSUES

WASHINGTON -- John Walters, President Bush's controversial nominee to
become next White House drug policy director, said Wednesday he supports
federal funding for drug abuse treatment and prevention, reversing his past
view on the issue.

Asked by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., if his opinion had changed since 1996,
when he wrote that federal funding was neither "necessary nor sufficient"
for teaching children that drug abuse is wrong, Walters replied: "Yeah, I
have changed my view on that."

Walters, testifying at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary
Committee, said that earlier he had favored local and state government
responsibility alone for education and treatment programs.

"I would not recommend that today," he said. Noting that Bush favors
increased federal funding to help states and localities with such programs,
he said, "It is the president's policy and I wouldn't have taken this job
if I disagreed with him on that."

Bush named Walters as director of the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy in May. He was serving as president of the Philanthropy
Roundtable, a national group of more than 650 donors and charities.

Walters has drawn heavy criticism from drug-treatment advocates, civil
libertarians and public health officials, who accused him of promoting a
"hard-line" policy of focusing on incarcerating drug addicts rather than
treating them.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., asked Walters about an article he wrote in
March for the conservative Weekly Standard. In it, the nominee said, "What
really drives the battle against law enforcement and punishment is not a
commitment to treatment, but the widely held view that (1) we are
imprisoning too many people for merely possessing illegal drugs, (2) drug
and other criminal sentences are too long and harsh, and (3) the criminal
justice system is unjustly punishing young black men. These are among the
great urban myths of our time."

Walters replied that when he worked in the drug policy office during the
first George Bush administration, he saw no evidence that there was unfair
discrimination against blacks.

Walters was a former deputy to the nation's first so-called "drug czar,"
William Bennett.

Republicans on the committee lauded Walters as well qualified for the post.

"John Walters is the right man for this difficult job," said Sen. Jon Kyl,
R-Ariz. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, added that during Walters' tenure in the
drug policy office from 1989 to 1993, prevention spending increased by 88
percent. "No other component, including law enforcement and interdiction,
was increased more than prevention," Hatch said.

But Sen. Joseph Biden, D-R.I., said he was concerned with Walters' past
statements favoring criminal enforcement over treatment. "If we solely
focus on law enforcement and ignore treatment, our strategy will fail,"
Biden said.

Vincent Schiraldi, president of the Justice Policy Institute, a liberal
group that focuses on criminal sentencing, said that Walters "has really
been a cheerleader for the harshest approach to the drug war. At best, he
is tepid in his support for treatment. He is the hard-liner among the
hard-liners."

If confirmed, Walters would succeed Barry McCaffrey, who left the post in
January.