DRUG CZAR TO STEP DOWN

WASHINGTON - The White House's high-profile drug czar Barry McCaffrey
announced Monday he's quitting, leaving behind a controversial $1 billion
anti-drug advertising campaign that congressional critics say had little
impact on curbing drug abuse in the United States.

McCaffrey, a retired U.S. Army general, said in a surprise statement that he
will leave office Jan. 6 and look for a job in the private sector.

"I am extremely grateful for the leadership and support of this
administration and its steadfast support of the goals and programs that
constitute the national drug control strategy," he said.

Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush blasted the Clinton
administration for not supporting McCaffrey's drug war, and said Clinton's
approach to drug abuse was "without urgency, without energy and without
success."

But McCaffrey used his resignation statement to praise President Clinton for
the support he gave the drug office. The federal government launched the
largest public-health communications campaign during his four-year stint,
McCaffrey said, adding that it will continue to drive down drug use by the
country's 68 million children.

Bill Bennett, drug czar in the Bush administration, applauded McCaffrey's
efforts, saying he is "a good and honorable man in an administration that
didn't act, lead or seem to care about the war on drugs."

McCaffrey's critics said the expensive propaganda campaigns aren't working,
and the $1 billion should instead be redirected to after-school programs and
other activities that have demonstrated they can keep kids away from drugs.

"We're more awash in drugs than ever before," said Kevin Zeese, director of
Common Sense for Drug Control.

Zeese credited McCaffrey with focusing public attention on drug abuse, but
criticized the drug czar for opposing needle exchange programs and medical
marijuana voter initiatives.

He said he would give McCaffrey a grade of C. "I would give him a somewhat
higher grade for being right on rhetoric, but a lower grade because we are
less healthy, and less safe."

Recent statistics released by McCaffrey's office show that overall drug
abuse has grown from 6.4 percent in 1997 to 7 percent in 1999. The
statistics show that marijuana and crack use is declining, but that use of
designer drugs, methamphetamine and ecstasy is soaring.

McCaffrey's anti-drug advertising campaign, designed with the help of
commercial advertising agencies, is aimed at changing youth attitudes about
drugs with Web sites and commercials.

But the campaign created controversies of its own. Earlier this year, White
House chief of staff John Podesta ordered the drug czar to disconnect
"cookies" programs used to track youths who visited the drug czar's
anti-drug Web sites. Fury also was provoked by disclosures that the drug
office paid Hollywood producers to put anti-drug messages in TV scripts.

More recently, the General Accounting Office's elite special investigations
unit, which handles criminal issues, disclosed it is looking at allegations
of overbilling, contract fraud and financial mismanagement involving a $175
million contract the New York advertising firm Ogilvy & Mather has with the
drug office. The GAO said the investigation is continuing.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of a House Government Reform drug
subcommittee overseeing the anti-drug campaign, warned the drug office that
the controversies are eroding support for the effort in Congress, and that
lawmakers want to see concrete results.

William Raub, an adviser to the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services, said three youth surveys show that while drug abuse has been
leveling off over the last three years, it still is higher than the
low-point of 1991.