PROGRESS MADE IN WAR ON DRUGS, FEDERAL OFFICIAL REPORTS

A federal drug official Wednesday said that progress is being made in
moving toward President Clinton's goal of reducing drug use by 50
percent by 2007. Donald Vereen Jr., deputy director of the U.S. Office
of National Drug Control Policy, reviewed the status of the war on
drugs in a speech before the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce in the
Palmer House Hilton. Partly as a result of education and prevention
efforts, use of marijuana among eighth-graders did not increase in
1997, he said.