CLINTON RELEASES FUNDS FOR WAR ON DRUGS

WASHINGTON - Tests of criminal defendants in 23 major cities showed
Saturday 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 troublemakers.

In light of the findings, President Clinton released $32 million to help
local officials tailor anti-drug strategies.

The grants announced in Clinton's weekly radio address followed a
nationwide $1 billion government anti-drug ad campaign launched

Thursday. 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 coerce nonviolent criminals to come clean.

"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%.

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

"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 use in Western and
Southwestern cities. Where use among arrested people fell in these cities
between 1994 and 1996, 1997 testing for the aggression-inducing stimulant
put its use back close to 40% of adults arrested in San Diego; 18% in San
Jose, Calif.; 16% in Phoenix and Portland, Ore.; and 10% in Omaha, Neb.

By contrast, crack cocaine use continued to wane in Manhattan, with 21% of
arrestees testing positive last year compared to 77% in 1988.

The ADAM survey also found cocaine is not as popular with young defendants
as it used to be. In Detroit and Washington, just 5% of those aged 15-20
tested positive for cocaine use, compared with almost 50% of those 36 and
over. In the late 1980s cocaine use among those arrested for crimes reached
80% and higher.

"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,'" Travis said.

Marijuana use appeared to be leveling off among male criminals. Fifteen of
the 23 survey sites reported drops in marijuana use by the younger group,
including substantial drops of between five and nine percentage points in
Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Omaha, Phoenix and Washington. Some
cities reported slight increases in pot smoking by arrested women.

Heroin is finding a younger client base in New Orleans, Philadelphia and
St. Louis, the only three sites where heroin abuse was more likely among
the 15-20 age group than the older one.

"These findings reinforce the need to be able to monitor the drug use
problems at the local level, to provide policy makers with specific
guidance about how their programs and interventions are succeeding," said
Dr. Jack Riley, the ADAM program's director.

The program exists in 35 cities - 23 that reported in 1997 and 12 new ones
- - and is due to expand by 2000 to 75 or 80, including every U.S. city with
populations greater than 200,000. In 1997, ADAM collected data, through
drug tests and interviews, from almost 32,000 men and women booked on
suspicion of crimes.