DOLE VISITS CALIFORNIA BORDER, VOWS TO FIGHT DRUGS

IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Standing 30 feet from the border with
Mexico, Republican presidential candidate Elizabeth Dole promised
Thursday to reduce the flow of illegal drugs into the United States
and pressure other countries to do the same.

Dole said she would increase the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents
from 8,000 to 20,000 and increase the use of high-tech, anti-smuggling
devices at the border.

She also would cut off aid to nations that refuse to extradite
suspected traffickers or that make no progress toward reducing their
supply of drugs to the United States.

"President Elizabeth Dole will lead a crusade with the goal of a
drug-free America," said Dole, making what her aides called her first
major policy speech on the drug war.

The former Cabinet secretary spoke to about 20 supporters and curious
onlookers at Borderfield State Park, 15 miles south of San Diego.

About 10 Mexicans and a reporter from a Tijuana newspaper listened
from the other side of the border fence as Dole spoke about increasing
the U.S. Border Patrol. Though its primary mission is to control
immigration, Dole said border agents also should be used in drug war.

"What about illegal immigration?" Ben Seeley, executive director of
the anti-illegal immigration Border Solution Task Force, yelled out
during Dole's speech. He attended specifically to see where Dole stood
on the issue.

Dole made no mention of illegal immigration controls, prompting Seeley
to call the speech "canned rhetoric."

Dole added that she would not, "under any circumstances, support the
legalization of marijuana."