GORE VOWS TO FIGHT RURAL DRUG USE

Methamphetamines Called "A Particularly Insidious Kind Of
Threat"

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) -- At a farmstead surrounded by corn fields but once used
as a methamphetamine lab, Vice President Al Gore promised Wednesday an
aggressive -- but vaguely detailed -- battle against rural drug use.

"You know that when methamphetamines can strike a place like this, we've
got to strike back hard in a determined way," Gore said as he campaigned
for the Democratic presidential nomination.

If elected, Gore said he would ask Congress for a sharp but unspecified
increase in federal funds to hire 100 additional Drug Enforcement
Administration agents specially assigned to rural areas and trained to shut
down meth labs. The Clinton administration budget for fiscal 2000 asks
Congress for $20 million for this purpose.

Gore promised his own administration would launch "the most effective and
comprehensive anti-crime strategy that our nation has ever seen -- from our
cities to our suburbs to our cherished rural communities."

He spoke in front of the peeling white paint of the farm garage where
police officers last year dismantled a makeshift lab cooking meth, also
known as crank or speed.

Use of the highly addictive drug, which Gore called "a particularly
insidious kind of threat," has soared in rural communities in recent years.
Police seizures from clandestine meth labs in Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, South
Dakota and Nebraska tripled between 1992 and 1996. Meth is also a growing
problem in California, Gore said.

Bare of cost estimates, Gore additionally promised to create anti-meth
education programs in rural schools and launch a new multimedia campaign --
like the egg in the frying pan with the slogan "This is your brain on
drugs," but specially targeted to rural residents.

And, he said he would up the ante by 50,000 on an old Bill Clinton campaign
pledge to put 100,000 new cops on the beats in neighborhoods across the
country.

Earlier this week, Gore proposed an anti-crime package focused at urban
areas. He was using this two-day campaign swing through Iowa -- site of the
nation's leadoff presidential nominating contest next year -- to focus on
rural crime efforts.

As Gore campaigned in Iowa, the White House announced that President
Clinton will begin raising money for Gore next month.

Clinton will begin his travels by meeting Gore in Little Rock, Ark., on
Aug. 6, said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart. He will attend a Gore
fund-raiser there the next day.

The president also will attend four Washington dinners on behalf of Gore
2000, two on Aug. 10 and two more Sept. 22, Lockhart said.

Gore also did some shadowboxing with his chief Republican opponent,
suggesting Wednesday that Texas Gov. George W. Bush was "ready to move into
the mansion before the election."

The vice president, who trails Bush in many polls and has raised only half
as much money, drew parallels between the 2000 presidential race and Iowa
Gov. Tom Vilsack's 1998 victory, although he never mentioned Bush by name.

"There was a time when he was 20 points behind in the polls and there were
people who said he couldn't win, right? Hmmmm," he theatrically reminded
Democratic activists at the Java Joe's coffeehouse.

"He developed -- what was it? -- momentum and ideas while his Republican
opponent was ready to move into the mansion before the election. I don't
know, maybe it's deja vu."