STOPPING THE WAR

Clinton's drug czar promotes prevention

SOUTHINGTON — Americans have a choice when it comes to fighting drug and
alcohol abuse in this country, Gen. Barry M. McCaffrey, director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy, told a group of more than 300 at
the Aqua Turf Wednesday night.

"If I'm a heroin addict, you can do three things," McCaffrey said. "You can
spend $26,000 a year to keep me in prison; you can leave me alone and deal
with the $43,000 a year in damages, including increased health care costs,
social service costs and criminal justice costs; or you can spend $2,000 to
$3,000 a year to put me into a drug treatment program."

McCaffrey, the most highly decorated and youngest four-star general in the
U.S. Army, was appointed drug czar by President Clinton in 1996. Prior to
his appointment, he was in command of the U.S. Armed Forces Southern
Command, coordinating national security operations in Latin America.

Given his military background, some in Washington expected McCaffrey to
continue the so-called War on Drugs that had begun earlier in the Clinton
administration. What they got instead was someone who was as set on
prevention of drug abuse among young people as he was putting South
American drug kingpins behind bars.

"A certain unnamed senator made the comment that we expected a general and
were given a social worker," McCaffrey said.

Rather than holding fast to the war metaphor, McCaffrey said he preferred
to compare it to a cancer.

"I've heard that we fought a war on drugs and we lost, and maybe we should
give up," he said. "I look at it more like a cancer. We've got to have
prevention, then we've got to treat it in a holistic manner. You have to
have multiple interventions, and we have to treat people with dignity."

McCaffrey was in Connecticut for two days to meet with Gov. John Rowland,
law enforcement officials, substance abuse professionals and community
groups to promote his National Drug Control Strategy, aimed at educating
youth to reject drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

He stressed the importance of preventing drug abuse on a local level,
particularly through programs like DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education),
mentoring programs and other community-based projects. And although DARE
has come under fire recently, McCaffrey said he will continue to support it
for elementary school children.

Besides the drug messages, DARE has positive effects on children by
familiarizing them with law enforcement officers and giving them
decision-making tools that are useful in other areas of life.

Furthermore, McCaffrey said in an interview after his speech, schools have
the infrastructure and the organization needed to run some of these other
programs. That's not to say that teachers need to stay after school to run
them, he said, but that school districts could work with the community.

"You could say that we don't have a national drug problem, only a series of
community drug epidemics," McCaffrey said.

Michael and Kay DeNegris, Wolcott residents and members of a town anti-drug
coalition called the Citizens Against Substance Abuse, said that message is
what they're trying to push in their own town.

"Community involvement is this big thing, and it's what we've been saying
all along," Kay DeNegris said. "We need everybody, from the mayor on down,
to make it work."

"I came away with the statistics," her husband said. "They were impressive,
and the DARE program. I agree with the general that it doesn't work at the
high school level, but we have to provide something once they get out of
middle school. We need to look at the high school and find something else
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