DRUG-FIGHTING MONEY RELEASED

Clinton Orders Award Of Grants To Discourage Use By Young
People

WASHINGTON - President Clinton ordered the distribution of more than
$8.7 million in new drug-fighting grants Saturday and told the nation
he would "stay focused on your business."

Clinton, in his weekly radio address, made no mention of independent
counsel Kenneth Starr's report to Congress but acknowledged he had "an
exhausting and difficult week."

Clinton announced the federal grants aimed at funding programs to
discourage drug, alcohol and tobacco use by young people and urged
lawmakers to enact legislation to help the International Monetary Fund
deal with the financial crises gripping Asia and Russia.

"The most important thing to do now is to stay focused on the issues
the American people sent us here to deal with, from health care, to
the economy, to terrorism," he said.

The "high impact, low red tape" drug-fighting grants are being awarded
to 93 community-based organizations nationwide. The bulk of the money
will go to urban areas and rural communities.

The grants go to programs that focus on uniting parents, teachers,
religious leaders and law enforcement agencies to help "give kids an
option after school from 3 to 7 p.m. and on weekends," Clinton's drug
czar Barry McCaffrey said.

"It is a very fundamental new initiative in the national drug strategy
that says let's get community-based in what we are trying to achieve,"
he said.

Ranging in size from $16,000 to $100,000, the grants will be used by
community groups such as the Elks and the Lions to finance education
programs and other efforts to discourage substance abuse.

"Their dollar amounts are not large," Clinton said. "But if these
grants empower communities to do more of what works, to keep young
people away from the scourge of drugs, their effect will be enormous."

While overall drug use has dropped by half since 1979, Clinton said
drug-abuse trends among young people suggest half of this year's high
school seniors will have smoked marijuana by the time they graduate.

"When we know that drugs lead to crime, to failure in school, to
fraying of families and neighborhoods, we know we must do better," the
president said in his weekly radio broadcast. "We can reverse this
terrible trend if we attack it in the way we did the crime problem, by
working together at the community level, neighborhood by neighborhood,
block by block, person by person."

Checked-by: Patrick Henry