BUSH PROPOSES PLAN TO COMBAT TEEN DRUG ABUSE

He called for spending $2.8 billion more over five years. In Florida, Gore
campaigned on his targeted tax-cut plan.

By Jodi Enda and David Goldstein INQUIRER WASHINGTON BUREAU

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - George W. Bush accused the Clinton-Gore administration
yesterday of firing blanks in the war against drugs and proposed to increase
spending by $2.8 billion over five years to curb illegal drug use,
particularly among teens.

"Unfortunately, in the last 71/2 years, fighting drug abuse has ceased to be
a national priority," said the Republican presidential nominee. "Drug policy
has been pursued without urgency, without energy, and without meaningful
success."

His opponent, Democrat Al Gore, was in Florida, teaming up with running mate
Joseph I. Lieberman at an outdoor rally of several thousand people at
Orlando. Gore focused on tax cuts again, saying his own were targeted to
help the middle class while Bush would give most of his proposed $1.3
trillion tax reduction to people who earn more than $1 million a year.

"Those facts aren't fuzzy," Gore said. "Those facts are real. They may be
inconvenient, but they're not fuzzy." In their debate Tuesday, Bush accused
Gore of using "fuzzy math."

In a 20-minute speech to about 150 people at a family resource center in
Cedar Rapids, Bush asserted that from 1979 to 1992, "our nation confronted
drug abuse successfully. Teen drug use declined each and every year. It was
one of the best public-policy successes of the 1980s.

"All that began to change 71/2 years ago. From 1992 to 1997, teen drug use
increased each and every year. Heroin use doubled. The age at which people
began using that drug dropped from 27 in 1988 to below 18 in 1997. This was
one of the worst public-policy failures of the 1990s."

Bush proposed spending $25 million over five years to help nonprofit
agencies assist parents in battling teen drug use. In the same period, he
would increase spending on drug-free schools by $100 million, double funding
for community- and faith-based antidrug programs to $350 million, and
provide $250 million for teen drug-treatment programs.

He proposed spending an additional $1 billion over five years to treat drug
addicts who are not receiving treatment, a category estimated at up to three
million people. Most of the remaining money would go toward preventing drugs
from entering the United States.

"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. That says something about priorities."

A spokesman for Gen. Barry McCaffrey, head of the White House drug policy
office, said the Texas governor was using "ancient numbers." Spokesman Bob
Weiner said the office initially lost staff when President Clinton slashed
overall White House employment, but that it now had 154 employees - more
than when President George Bush, the Republican candidate's father, left
office in 1993.

Weiner also said the Clinton administration had budgeted about $7 billion
more to fight drugs - the amount for fiscal 2001 is nearly $20 billion -
than did the elder Bush.

Weiner also cited a recent study showing that drug use among 12- to
17-year-olds declined 21 percent the last two years.

The Texas governor acknowledged that teen drug use had "leveled off" the
last two years. But he gave the Clinton administration no credit.

Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said the administration had proposed the
largest antidrug budget to date, and noted that Gore had already proposed
spending an additional $5.3 billion to crack down on drugs.

"Once again, Governor Bush has misfired in attacking the progress of the
past eight years," Hattaway said. "And once again, Governor Bush is playing
follow the leader."

Gore spokesman Chris Lehane added that the vice president last year proposed
a crackdown on methamphetamine production. He has called for better
treatment options, strengthening the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program,
expanding drug courts, and toughening penalties for those who sell drugs to
children.

In Florida, Gore fired up a rally at Orlando's band shell beside Lake Eola.
Amid swaying palm trees and near-100-degree heat, he called the state, with
its 25 electoral votes, "the key to the election."

He also declared Lieberman the winner in Thursday's vice presidential debate
with Republican candidate Dick Cheney. "That was as clear a win if I ever
saw one," Gore said.

Lieberman, basking in the crowd's cheers, said, "You're making me feel like
'Rocky.' "

Cheney speaking with reporters yesterday while traveling to Shreveport, La.,
said that Gore stretches the truth. "He seems to have a compulsion to
embellish his answers, or as I mentioned the other day, his resume," Cheney
said. ". . .He has held national office for 24 years, yet he seems to have
this uncontrollable desire to periodically add things to his reputation that
are not true."

Cheney was accompanied by former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, an old friend,
who leveled an even sharper attack on Gore's truthfulness. Simpson
resurrected allegations by Republican Senate leaders after the 1991 vote
authorizing U.S. forces to launch the Persian Gulf war. They said Gore
insisted on having 20 minutes to speak on the Senate floor during TV's prime
time in exchange for his vote in favor of the resolution. Gore has denied
the allegation.