WHITE HOUSE PLANS TO ANNOUNCE NEW DRUG WAR STRATEGY

The five-part plan is aimed at halving the use and availability of drugs
by2007.

WASHINGTON - Hammering home the need for a drug-control strategy that
measures success and failure, the Clinton administration is announcing a
five-part plan today designed to cut the nation's drug problem in half by
2007.

In a three-volume report to Congress, White House drug policy director Barry
McCaffrey said drugs cost the country more than 14,000 lives annually,
despite a nationwide effort that includes close to $18 billion spent this
past year by the federal government.

President Clinton said that although "there is some encouraging progress in
the struggle against drugs ... the social costs of drug use continue to
climb."

In a message to Congress to be released today, Clinton said that among the
positive signs are a growing view among young people that drugs are risky
and a continuing decline in cocaine production overseas.

"Studies demonstrate that when our children understand the dangers of drugs,
their rates of drug use drop," Clinton said.

The five parts of the administration plan are educating children, decreasing
the addicted population, breaking the cycle of drugs and crime, securing the
nation's borders from drugs and reducing the supply of drugs.

The blend of strategies is aimed at reducing the use and availability of
drugs by 50 percent by 2007, 25 percent by 2002. Achieving the goal would
mean that just 3 percent of the U.S. household population age 12 and older
would be using illegal drugs. The current figure is estimated to be 6.4
percent. In 1979, the rate was near 15 percent.

Vice President Al Gore, who will announce the plan today, said, "This
strategy takes us into the next century with a goal of dramatic reductions
in the supply and demand for drugs and a real chance of giving our children
drug-free communities in which to grow up."

A major piece of the drug-control effort is an advertising campaign designed
to generate more than $195 million a year in matching contributions from
media companies.

"The strategy seeks to involve parents, coaches, mentors, teachers, clergy
and other role models in a broad prevention campaign," said McCaffrey, head
of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

A cornerstone of the strategy is accountability for the wide array of
current anti-drug programs, with boosts for those that work and the ability
to identify swiftly and repair those that aren't producing results.