MILLIONS MORE FOR DRUG WAR: Clinton Wants Expansion Of Special Court System

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton, urging Americans not to become complacent
over dramatic declines in drug use over the last decade, continued to build
his anti-drug message Saturday, announcing $32 million in federal grants to
expand drug courts and curb a disturbing uptick in methamphetamine use.

Clinton cited new federal statistics showing that, while more than half of
the people charged with crimes are found to have drugs in their system at
the time of arrest, the trend continues to be downward, especially for
crack cocaine.

"Today there are 50 percent fewer Americans using drugs than just 15 years
ago," Clinton said in his weekly radio address. But he added, "There is no
greater threat to our families and communities than the abuse of illegal
drugs."

The new study by the Justice Department showed that, after two years of
decline, methamphetamine is again showing up in greater numbers among those
arrested in Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., San Diego and San Jose.

In San Diego, methamphetamine has become the dominant drug associated with
the crime culture; about 40 percent of those arrested were found to have
used methamphetamine, or crank. By comparison, in Washington, D.C., the
rate was only 1 percent.

In addition, there are indications that methamphetamine is moving into
rural areas and eastward into such cities as St. Louis, Chicago and
Atlanta. But so far, said Attorney General Janet Reno, "methamphetamine is
not becoming the crack cocaine of the 1990s."

Clinton offered $5 million in federal assistance to six cities with
documented methamphetamine problems -- Minneapolis, Phoenix, Salt Lake
City, Oklahoma City, Dallas and Little Rock.

Further, he announced $27 million to expand the number of local drug courts
around the country, from 270 to 400.

The federal grants include several targeting the San Joaquin Valley, which
law enforcement officials have long considered a stronghold of
methamphetamine production. Kings County and Merced County will each
receive about $30,000 to plan drug courts, while Tulare County will receive
$327,000 to plan and implement a drug court.

The California emphasis is no coincidence. The Valley's rural hideaways
have become an increasingly popular location for a drug that is relatively
cheap, powerfully addictive, and controlled in California by Mexican
organized crime gangs.

Sacramento County sheriff's deputies in 1995 arrested 1,117 people on
methamphetamine-related charges, nearly three times as many as those
arrested for cocaine, heroin and marijuana combined. And in the northern
San Joaquin Valley, by one study's accounting, the number of meth-related
hospital admissions rose 502 percent between 1984 and 1993.

While still in their infancy in this country, drug courts are rapidly
expanding, from just 12 in 1994 to a projected 1,000 by the turn of the
century.

In a drug court, addicts who plead guilty to non-violent crimes enter drug
treatment and testing programs rather than prison. Early analysis suggests
only 4 percent of those completing treatment have been arrested again -- a
much lower rate than is common for ex-inmates.

Jeremy Travis, director of the National Institute of Justice, called the
drug courts "one of the very important, very significant, very effective
innovations" that have come about since the early 1990s.

Last year, Fresno County received a $335,000 federal grant to expand its
existing drug court. Sacramento County, too, began a drug court with an
18-month federal grant provided several years ago. Once the initial federal
grant ran out last year, however, the county had to scramble to find other
funding.

Clinton's new announcements completed a weeklong anti-drug blitz that
included the unveiling of a $195 million media campaign designed to flood
the airwaves with public-service warnings about drug use.

Experts say the new marketing effort is needed because, while overall drug
use is down 50 percent and more since the mid-1980s, it remains steady
among the very young -- the next generation of drug users.

"We find kids starting at 13 with a marijuana that's two to 20 times
stronger than their parents used," says James Burke, chairman of
Partnership for Drug Free America. "And we haven't reached those kids."

The new report by the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring program (ADAM) shows
generally favorable trends on cocaine.

"We're seeing younger people who are now coming of the age where they might
engage in risky behaviors ... who are using at much lower rates than their
slightly older brothers," said Travis. "The younger brother looks at what's
happening to his older brother, who is now either in jail or a crackhead,
... and says, 'I don't want that to be me.' "

At the same time, the 1997 study reports that heroin use has been
increasing among young people arrested in New Orleans, Philadelphia and St.
Louis.

The study was based on drug and arrest records in 23 major U.S. cities.
Twelve new cities are being added to the database this year, including
Sacramento, Minneapolis, Anchorage and Seattle.

Copyright 1998 The Sacramento Bee