GORE: DRUG POLICY TO TACKLE `SPIRITUAL PROBLEM'

WASHINGTON -- Releasing the administration's annual drug control
strategy Monday, Vice President Al Gore called drug abuse a
``spiritual problem'' and said that young people beset with feelings
of emptiness and alienation are more likely to succumb to ``messages
that are part of a larger entity of evil.''

In response, Gore called for greater efforts to improve schools and
create economic opportunity for young people, especially in minority
and low-income communities.

The administration seeks nearly $18 billion for drug control programs
in its new budget. As with its previous strategies, the administration
allocates about two-thirds of anti-drug spending for law enforcement,
interdiction and other efforts to attack the supply of illicit drugs;
the remaining one-third goes to prevention, treatment and other
programs to reduce the demand.

``We are confident that this is a balanced strategy,'' said retired
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy. He said programs aimed at reducing demand have
been growing faster than those aimed at supply.

If the administration's requests are adopted by Congress, spending on
programs aimed at cutting demand will have increased by 36 percent
since 1996, compared with a 30 percent spending increase for programs
aimed at reducing the drug supply.

The drug strategy drew criticism from advocates of greater spending on
programs meant to reduce the appetite for illegal drugs. The Drug
Policy Foundation called the strategy ``hypocritical and
disappointing,'' and said in a statement that ``the White House and
the Congress need to shift from a criminal justice-based drug policy
to a public health-based policy.''

The centerpiece of the administration's prevention strategy again is a
multimedia advertising campaign designed to alert adolescents to the
dangers of illegal drug use. With additional funding of $10 million
requested in the next budget, the media campaign would grow to $195
million.

In unveiling the strategy, Gore emphasized his view of attending to
the broad underlying causes of drug abuse rather than focusing only on
more stringent attacks on criminal behavior.

``It is an interconnected problem, and so our solution must also be
interconnected,'' Gore said, pointing to spiritual, psychological,
social and economic factors that combine to promote drug abuse,
particularly among young people.

To counter this, Gore said, ``We have to do more to expand
opportunity, to create jobs for our young people, especially in
communities that have too often been passed by in good times.'' He
called for greater efforts to improve schools to help students
``empower themselves with the trained minds that make them stronger.''