GINGRICH: CLINTON DRUG PLAN FAILURE

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 (UPI) House Speaker Newt Gingrich says President
Clinton's new plan to fight illegal drugs "is the definition of failure."

Gingrich made the comment in the Republican response to Clinton's weekly
radio address.

In his radio address, Clinton said he wants to hire 1,000 more border
patrol agents, increase drug testing for parolees of the federal prison
system and implement better drug use prevention programs.

White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey says the strategy should reduce drug
use from what is believed to be currently 6 percent of the population to
only 3 percent by the year 2007.

But Gingrich said Clinton's plan would reduce illegal drug use to 35
percent of what it was when Clinton took office in 1992. He said the final
objective of Clinton's plan "is to correct some of the damage that his
administration has already done." He said, "Any plan that will not protect
our children from drugs is dead on arrival in this Congress."

Gingrich urged Clinton "to renounce his timid defeatist attitude" toward
illegal drugs.

He said Republicans will wage a "World War II-style victory campaign
against illegal drugs."