DRUG CZAR'S REPORT: YOUTH USE IS UP

Compiled from Times wires

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 is now at a historic high, according to figures in a
national report on drug policy to be released today.

In his final report on America's drug problem, the director of the Office
of the National Drug Control Policy says the longtime rallying cry of a
"war on drugs" has become misleading. A more accurate comparison, Barry
McCaffrey said, is to the fight against cancer: "Prevention coupled with
treatment accompanied by research."

"Although wars are expected to end, drug education -- like all schooling --
is a continuous process," the retired four-star general said.

McCaffrey, who is stepping down Friday, for the first time is adding
treatment as one of the goals of the National Drug Control Strategy.
Treatment programs, he said, can "reduce the consequences of addiction."
Providing access to them for chronic drug abusers is "compassionate public
policy and a sound investment."

The other elements of the strategy:

Educating and enabling youth to reject illegal drugs as well as alcohol and
tobacco.

Increasing Americans' safety by reducing drug-related crime and violence.

Shielding air, land and sea frontiers from the drug threat.

Breaking foreign and domestic drug sources of supply.

McCaffrey will argue in a White House news conference that the drug problem
among youths in particular is getting better.

To support his position, he will cite a 21 percent decrease in use from
1997 to 1999, perhaps the first signs from a widely praised anti-drug media
campaign.

Still, drug use among those age 12 to 17 was exactly the same in 1999 as it
was in 1996, when McCaffrey became drug czar; in both years, 9 percent of
those youths surveyed acknowledged using illegal drugs sometime during the
previous month, according to the national survey. In 1993, when Clinton
first took office, only 5.7 percent of teens said they used illegal drugs.

The sobering news comes during a time when the federal government committed
huge amounts of new money recently to fight the problem, increasing funding
to $19.2-billion this year from $13.4-billion in 1996, an average increase
of more than $1-billion a year.

The report for the first time during McCaffrey's nearly five years in
office includes closing the gap in treatment as one of five national drug
strategy goals. In 1998, the last year for which figures are available, 57
percent of America's addicts who needed treatment did not get it.

The numbers in the 2001 national drug strategy report suggest that even
with a 34 percent increase in treatment funding during the past five years,
the programs fall far short of helping those who are toughest to
rehabilitate and most costly to society.

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 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 recorded.

Also Wednesday:

NEW YORK REFORM ADVOCATED: Gov. George Pataki called for the easing of New
York's tough Rockefeller drug laws, which were enacted in the 1970s and
have contributed to a surge in the number of people behind bars.

The laws, enacted under Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, are among the harshest in
the nation and can bring mandatory life sentences for possession of even
relatively small amounts of narcotics.

"However well-intentioned, key aspects of those laws are out of step with
both the times and the complexities of drug addiction," the Republican
governor said in his seventh annual State of the State address.

MARIJUANA ADS: Metro subway stations and buses in Washington, D.C., began
displaying advertisements this week that suggest marijuana use should be
decriminalized.

The ad campaign, rejected by Boston's subway system and the subject of a
pending lawsuit there, was funded by Change the Climate Inc., a non-profit
organization that thinks punishment for marijuana use is too harsh.

"We are business owners and parents who are increasingly concerned that the
punishment far outweighs the crime," said Joseph White, 45, a partner in a
Massachusetts telemarketing and opinion research firm who formed the group
last year. "We want the politicians and thousands of people who are going
to be here for inauguration month to take an interest in the issue."

- -- Information from the Boston Globe, Associated Press and Washington Post
was used in this report.