PRESIDENT RELEASES DRUG FUNDS

Social Issues:The $32 million worth of grants aim at tailoring local programs.

Washington-Tests of criminal defendants in 23 major cities showed Saturday
that the nation's drug problem is regional and generational, as the use of
"speed" rebounds in the West and Southwest and cocaine loses its appeal
among young trouble-makers.

In light of the findings, President Clinton released $32 million to help
local officials tailor antidrug strategies. Clinton also pushed Saturday
for Congress to provide an additional $85 million to expand mandatory drug
testing and treatment programs for probationers, prisoners and parolees.

Of the federal money released Saturday, $27 million will be used to create
special drug courts in 150 jurisdictions. More than 270 drug courts already
exist around the country, combining supervision with sanctions, testing and
drug treatment.

"To stop the revolving door of crime and narcotics, we must make offenders
stop abusing drugs." Clinton said. He noted that in some cities, drug-court
participants have recidivism - or repeat-offender - rates as low as 4 percent.

An additional $5 million in federal money was released to six cities with
documented problems of methamphetamine abuse. Phoenx, Salt Lake City,
Oklahoma City, Dallas, Minneapolis and Little Rock, Ark., are getting
grants to tailor enforcement and prevention efforts.

"There is no single national drug problem. We have lots of very different
local drug problems," said Jeremy Travis, director of the National
Institute of Justice, research arm of the Justice Department.

The grants came as the institute's Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program,
or ADAM, showed a rebound in methamphetamine - or "speed" - use in Western
and Southwestern cities. Where use among arrested people fell in these
cities from 1994 to 1996, 1997 testing for the aggression-inducing
stimulant put its use back close to 40 percent of adults arrested in San
Diego; 18 percent in San Jose; 16 percent in Phoenix and Portland, Ore.;
and 10 percent in Omaha, Neb.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski