U.S. DRUG WAR'S ACHIEVEMENTS OVERLOOKED

The Sun-Times article ["The failed war on drugs," Part 1 of a
six-part series, Jan. 7] criticizing Office of National Drug Control
Policy Director Barry McCaffrey and national drug policy omitted the
record of real results. In the past two years, 12- to 17-year-olds'
drug use fell 21 percent (according to the respected Household
Survey), and 34 percent in the past three years (according to the
Pride Survey of 100,000 youths). The number of drug-related murders
dropped to the lowest point in more than a decade, and workplace drug
use has fallen to an 11-year low.

Our source-zone efforts cut coca cultivation in Peru by 66 percent
and Bolivia by 55 percent since 1995, and Andean coca cultivation is
down nearly 20 percent overall.

In addition, McCaffrey made prevention a priority. The youth
anti-drug media campaign is having a positive impact: It reaches 95
percent of parents and teens more than seven times per week.

We shifted the handling of drug criminals away from just "tough on
crime" to breaking the cycle of drugs and crime, in view of the
government's finding that 62 percent of arrestees have tested
positive for drugs. Funding for drug treatment has expanded by 34
percent since 1994.

The number of drug courts (which offer court-supervised drug
treatment programs, curtailing crime and helping abusers restore
their lives) has grown from a dozen in 1994 to 700 now. The number of
federal inmates receiving substance-abuse treatment--thereby stopping
an otherwise predictable return to crime and drugs--increased tenfold
from 1993 to the present.

These dramatic improvements are the direct result of the balanced and
effective approach that McCaffrey helped engineer.

Robert S. Weiner, chief of press relations, Office of National Drug
Control Policy