DRUGS, BOTH GOOD AND BAD, DOMINATE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Drugs that harm and those that heal were central campaign trail themes
Friday, as Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush attacked the
Clinton administration's anti-drug policy, and his Democratic rival, Al
Gore, promoted his plan for giving senior citizens prescription price relief.

Bush, the Texas governor, slashed the administration's record on fighting
drugs, calling it "one of the worst public policy failures of the 1990s."

He pledged to re-energize the nation's anti-drug efforts if elected with
$2.7 billion in increased spending over five years.

"Unfortunately, in the last 7 1/2 years, fighting drugs has ceased to be a
national priority," Bush told a crowd in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "Drug policy
has been pursued without urgency, without energy, without success."

The Gore campaign responded that Bush was basing his case on outdated
numbers and "Washington fuzzy math" -- pointedly borrowing a phrase Bush
used several times in this week's debate to criticize Gore policy proposals.

The vice president also alluded to the debate line as he campaigned in
Florida, plugging his plans for prescription drug benefits and reiterating
his charge that Bush's $1.3 trillion tax cut plan would largely help the
wealthy.

"Those facts aren't fuzzy. Those facts are real," he told a crowd in Orlando.

Gore's visit to Florida, his second this week, underscores how the Sunshine
State, with its 25 electoral votes, has become an unexpected battleground
in the upcoming election. Bush flew to the state Friday night and planned
to rally supporters in Clearwater today.

Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor of Florida, and the state was once
believed solidly in the Bush camp.

But recent polls show that Gore has made inroads, particularly with his
appeals to the state's large senior citizen population.

In Iowa, Bush praised Clinton for selecting Gen. Barry McCaffrey as his
drug czar, but criticized the president for cutting the staff of the
national drug office.

"One of Mr. Clinton's first acts as president was to slash the staff of the
drug office by 80 percent," Bush said.

"The number of workers there went from 146 to 25 -- in other words about
half the size of the White House public relations operation," he said.
"That says something about priorities."

Bush, using statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said that
from 1992 to 1997 teen drug abuse increased every year, heroin use doubled
and the age at which people began using drugs dropped from 27 in 1988 to 18
in 1997.

Gore's campaign responded that those statistics do not match the progress
of recent years.

Douglas Hattaway, national spokesman for Gore's campaign, said drug control
and interdiction funding is up from $12.2 billion in 1993 to $18.5 billion
in 2000.

And the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse by the Health and Human
Services Department reports illicit drug use by people between the ages of
12 and 17 has dropped 21 percent since 1997.

Hattaway said Gore has proposed $5.3 billion in new anti-drug spending,
including grants to local drug prevention and treatment programs, a
national anti-drug media campaign and tougher penalties for people who sell
drugs to children.

Gore previously has admitted to occasional marijuana use while in college.

Bush, while acknowledging youthful mistakes, has refused to answer
questions about whether he used illegal drugs as a young man.

In his speech, Bush proposed grants for non-profit organizations to use in
helping businesses fight workplace drug use and in establishing a Parents
Drug Corps to help teach parents how to prevent drug abuse by their children.

He also proposed spending $350 million over five years to support community
anti-drug programs and $1 billion to help states establish drug treatment
programs, especially for teen-agers.

Democrats in the past have criticized Bush as Texas governor for not
funding 3,000 drug-treatment beds in the state prison system that had been
proposed by his predecessor, Gov. Ann Richards.

On the subject of prescription medicine for seniors, Gore said that Bush's
plans to help insurance companies provide prescription drug benefits would
force people into HMOs and would take four to five years to phase in.

"The other side doesn't give a penny to 95 percent of seniors for another
four or five years," said Gore.

He also defended himself against a Republican ad that says Democrats would
force seniors into a government health maintenance organization by having
Medicare directly subsidize prescription drug benefits.

"They get on television and describe Medicare as a big government HMO.
That's a clue to their basic attitude toward Medicare," Gore said. "There's
a big difference between Medicare and an HMO. Under our plan you chose your
own doctor."