ADMINISTRATION AIMS TO HALVE DRUG USE

WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration unveiled a plan Monday to cut the
percentage of people using illegal drugs in the USA in half by 2007.

An estimated 6.4% of the population now uses illegal drugs. The goal of the
1999 National Drug Control Strategy released by Vice President Gore is to
cut the percentage of the U.S. population 12 years old and above who
regularly use illegal drugs to 3%.

The strategy released Monday is built on five points, including:

Educating and encouraging the nation's youth to reject illegal drugs,
alcohol and tobacco.

Providing more drug treatment for the addicted population.

Break the cycle of drugs and crime through new systems of drug testing,
treatment and punishment of prisoners, parolees and people on probation.

Increasing drug interdiction domestically and internationally.

Expanding efforts to safeguard the nation's borders from drugs.

The goals of the strategy deviate little from the administration's 1998
plan, but its $17.8 billion budget for the year 2000 is the largest federal
drug control budget ever. It is a $735 million increase over 1999.

White House Office of Drug Control Policy Director Barry McCaffrey said the
No. 1 priority in the strategy is to educate the nation's children about
the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco. A component of that is the $2
billion, five-year Anti-Drug Media Campaign that began last year.

The strategy comes four days after the American Bar Association, the
nation's largest organization of lawyers, released a report showing that
increased drug arrests and higher incarceration rates have not reduced drug
use.

Ethan Nadelmann, founder and director of the Lindesmith Center, said the
plan throws "billions of dollars down the bottomless pits of interdiction
and failed prevention programs" rather than focusing on drugs as a public
health issue.

The Lindesmith Center is a New York-based drug policy group funded by
philanthropist George Soros, who advocates decriminalizing some drugs. The
administration plan also comes at a time when members of Congress have
complained that $2.6 billion set aside last year for drug interdiction was
not included in President Clinton's proposed budget released last week.