NEW ANTI-DRUG PUSH PLANNED

State Will Blend Efforts In Treatment, Prevention And Law
Enforcement.

State officials on Monday announced a three-year strategy to battle
illicit drugs in Iowa that for the first time coordinates efforts in
law enforcement, prevention and treatment.

Championed by Gov. Tom Vilsack, the plan counts on more drug task
forces, particularly in rural areas; expands the costly but successful
drug court program statewide; and sends more drug offenders into
long-term treatment.

"Quite frankly, there really wasn't a strategy previously," said Bruce
Upchurch, who oversees the Governor's Alliance on Substance Abuse.
"What we had were a hodgepodge of programs."

The more coordinated strategy comes on the heels of another record
year for drug treatment admissions in Iowa and a decade in which
spending for law enforcement far outpaced that for drug treatment and
prevention. As prison crowding has pressed the state officials to find
more lasting solutions to the drug problem, attention has shifted more
toward prevention, Upchurch said.

Among other approaches, the strategy would:

* Expand to eight the number of drug courts in Iowa within a year. The
state has three programs in Des Moines, Sioux City and Council Bluffs.

* Divert more drug users on probation into treatment. Corrections
officials have proposed spending $600,000 to provide up to six months
of residential drug treatment for about 200 people each year.

* Enhance drug-fighting efforts in rural communities, using task
forces that pool manpower and share training.

The plan also calls for more teacher training to identify youth drug
use, workplace education, hiring six new narcotics agents and boosting
efforts to reduce youth access to tobacco.

State Corrections Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky was one of several state
officials praising Vilsack's push for more a comprehensive
drug-fighting effort. The approach is proving "invaluable while trying
to reduce addictive behavior in a way that also reduces public harm,"
he said.

Ken Carter, state narcotics division director, said Vilsack also has
firmly backed efforts by law enforcement to get Iowa's methamphetamine
problem under control. In the mid-1980s, he said, his division had
eight narcotics agents. The six more proposed, he said, would bring
that number to 45.

Upchurch said the plan "reflects very well the feelings of state
government, the heads of the state departments, all the people
currently in the fight and the governor's feelings as well."