GORE DETAILS WHITE HOUSE STRATEGY TO CUT NATION'S DRUG PROBLEM IN HALF BY
2007

Vice President Gore today released the Clinton administration's plan
to cut the drug problem in half by 2007, saying the strategy had to
provide hope to youngsters and treatment for prisoners even as it
cracked down on drug traffickers.

"We must start by recognizing that our nation's drug problem was not
born in isolation and does not exist in a vacuum," Gore said in the
Old Executive Office Building next to the White House.

"It is an interconnected problem, and so our solutions must also be
interconnected. We must mount an all-out effort to banish crime, drugs
and disorder and hopelessness from our streets once and for all."

Gore said the five-part plan repairs programs that are not working and
boosts those that do.

He claimed some success in the fight against drugs, noting that adult
drug use is half of what it was in 1979 and that teen drug use has
started to decline.

"But when drug dealers still roam our streets and rob our children of
their dreams, and drug-related crime still ravages so many of our
neighborhoods, we know that we have barely begun," he said. "We must
do so much more."

White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey wants the nation's
children to be the focus of the drive against drugs, which he said
cost the country more than 14,000 lives annually despite a nationwide
effort that includes close to $18 billion in federal funding this
year.

The White House "seeks to involve parents, coaches, mentors, teachers,
clergy and other role models in a broad prevention campaign," he said
in the four-volume strategy sent today to Capitol Hill.

In a message to Congress, President 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," he said.

The five parts of the 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 drug supply.

A major piece of the drug-control effort is an advertising campaign
that generates more than $195 million a year in matching contributions
from media companies. Another cornerstone of the strategy is
accountability for the wide array of current anti-drug programs.

"In the past, Congress had been critical because there were no
specific measurements for success," said Bob Weiner, a spokesman for
McCaffrey. "No longer do we only measure the people working the issue
and the dollars spent on it. Now you've got to prove bang for the buck."

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

Additional goals for the period ending in 2007 are to reduce by 30
percent the rate of crime associated with drug trafficking and use and
to cut the health and social costs associated with drugs by 25
percent. As of 1995, the social costs of drug use were estimated at
$110 billion, a 64 percent increase over 1990.