MAKING DRUG WAR A NATIONAL PRIORITY

More than two months into George W. Bush's presidency, there is still no
"drug czar" nominee. The president has traveled to Mexico to meet with
President Vicente Fox, met with President Andres Pastrana of Colombia,
conducted high-level discussions about the role of faith-based
organizations in drug treatment and prevention, and announced the
administration's funding priorities for drug policy -- all without a drug
czar in office.

Even worse, speculation is rife that this president's drug czar will not be
given a seat in the Cabinet. In a city where symbolic actions often speak
very loudly, the clear and troubling perception is that Bush places
relatively little value on an issue that is critical to our nation's health.

Substance abuse is one of our nation's most pervasive problems. Addiction
is a disease that does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender,
socio-economic status, race or creed. Alarmingly, more than three-quarters
of new heroin users in 1999 were between age 12 and 25. And while we tend
to stereotype drug abuse as an urban problem, heroin and methamphetamine
addiction appears to be growing most rapidly in rural and suburban areas.

Today, there are nearly 15 million drug users in this country, 4 million of
whom are hard-core addicts. Almost everyone knows someone with a drug or
alcohol abuse problem be it a family member, neighbor, colleague or friend.

And we are all affected by the undeniable correlation between substance
abuse and crime: an overwhelming 80 percent of the 2 million men and women
behind bars today have a history of drug and alcohol abuse or addiction or
were arrested for a drug-related crime.

All of this comes at a hefty price. Each year drug abuse and addiction cost
the U.S. $110 billion in law enforcement and other criminal justice
expenses, medical bills, lost earnings and other costs. Illegal drugs are
responsible for thousands of deaths each year and for the spread of
communicable diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis C.

And a study by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University shows that seven out of 10 cases of child abuse and
neglect are caused or exacerbated by substance abuse and addiction.

Thirteen years ago, I wrote the law that created the Office of National
Drug Control Policy, the office the drug czar oversees, because I was
convinced we needed a coordinated federal drug policy, with one person
accountable for developing and implementing an effective national strategy.

Cabinet-level status gives the position the visibility commensurate with
the depth of the problem, and provides our drug czar the clout to stop
interagency feuding, fight for necessary budgetary resources, and decertify
inadequate agency drug budgets.

To be able to decertify an agency's budget -- as General Barry McCaffrey
did with Secretary of Defense William Cohen's proposed counter-narcotics
budget for the Defense Department -- the drug czar must be on equal footing
with the rest of the president's Cabinet. How can someone in a sub-Cabinet
position pull rank on a member of the Cabinet?

Congress cannot mandate who serves in a president's Cabinet. And there's
nothing Congress or the American people can do if the president doesn't
want to make a priority of the position of the drug czar. But I believe
the work of the nation's drug czar is of vital importance and, with
presidential support, can make a profound difference in our public health
and safety.

After learning that the United States trade representative might be
relegated to the sub-Cabinet, the business community successfully lobbied
to retain Cabinet rank for that important post. Perhaps a similar push by
parents, police officers, drug treatment providers, teachers, coaches, and
religious leaders can succeed in ensuring cabinet rank for the individual
in charge of our national drug policy.

The stakes are too high not to act.

Biden is a U.S. senator from Delaware. He wrote the law that created the
Office of National Drug Control Policy, the office the drug czar oversees.