BIG BUCKS FAIL TO TURN DRUG TIDE

Washington: Youth drug use in America increased sharply during the eight
years of the Clinton Administration and the number of drug-related episodes
in emergency rooms are now at historic highs, according to figures in a
national report on drug policy.

The sobering news comes during a time when the Federal Government committed
huge amounts of money recently to fight the problem, raising funding to
$US19.2 billion ($33.6 billion) this year from $US13.4 billion in 1996.

But General Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of the National Drug
Control Policy, will argue that the authorities are making headway against
the drug problem, particularly among youth.

To support his position, he will cite a 21 per cent fall in use from 1997
to 1999.

Still, drug use among those aged 12 to 17 was the same in 1999 as it was in
1996, when General McCaffrey became drug czar.

The 2001 national drug strategy report figures suggest that even with a 34
per cent increase in treatment funding in the past five years, the programs
are failing.

In 1993, the report estimated 3.3 million hardcore cocaine users and
694,000 heroin addicts. The 1998 figures: 3.3 million cocaine addicts,
980,000 heroin addicts.

In President Clinton's first year, the drug abuse warning network recorded
460,910 drug-related conditions in emergency rooms. In 1999, the number
increased to 554,932, the highest ever.

Mr Michael Massing, author of The Fix, a history of America's drug war,
said: "The percentage of those untreated remains to me one of the most
telling figures in the wealth of statistics the drug control office puts
out. It's a continuing indictment of the policy that Clinton and McCaffrey
have pursued."