DOLE PROMISES 'CRUSADE' FOR A DRUG-FREE AMERICA

Bucking Polls, She Calls Issue An Important One

Imperial Beach (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 anti-smuggling devices at the border.

She would also 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 aids called her first major policy
speech on the drug war.

The former cabinet secretary spoke to about 20 supporters and curious
onloookers 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 the drug war.

The get-tough on drugs address is Dole's third in a rollout of what aids say
are four cornerstones of her compaign: education, national defence, drugs
and taxes.

She hoped a focus on illegal drugs would earn her credit for leadership on
an issue that many voters supposedly do not rank as a priority.

"Pundits and pollsters tell me that drug abuse is not an important issue.
But I don't get my passion from polling," Dole said. She noted studies that
show a doubling of teen drug use since 1992, the year Clinton was elected,
undoing the "gains of the 1980s 'Just Say No' campaign... during the Reagan
and Bush presidencies."

"The White House has not led a war on drugs,' she said. "It's not that they
surrendered-they just didn't show up," she said.

The Clinton administration challenged her depiction of its anti-drug efforts.

"Manyof the objectives she states are exactly what the administration is
doing," said Bob Weiner, spokesman for Barry McCaffery, director of the
White House National Drug Policy Office.

Dole added rthat she would not, "under any circumstances, support the
legalization of marijuana or any other drug."