CLINTON WANTS ILLEGAL DRUG USE CUT IN HALF

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Clinton proposed a new drug strategy on
Saturday with the aim of cutting illicit drug use in half over the next
decade.

"This plan builds on our strategy of tougher punishment, better prevention,
and more partnerships to shut down the international drug trade," Clinton
said in his weekly radio address.

Clinton said there have been successes in the war on drugs, saying studies
have shown the number of Americans who use drugs has fallen by a half since
1979.

"But that number is still too large," he said. "We can and must cut drug
use in America by another 50 percent."

As evidence that recent administration policies are working, Clinton cited
a Justice Department study that reported progress in weaning from drugs
those who have served time in federal prisons.

It said those inmates who received drug treatment were 73 percent less
likely to be rearrested and 44 percent less likely to test positive for
drugs in the first six months after their release than those who did not
receive treatment.

The study involved 1,866 inmates at 30 prisons.

"Not too long ago, there were some who said our fight against drugs and
crime was hopelessly lost," Clinton said. "Well, crime has fallen every
year for the last five years and now the tide is turning against drugs."

In the Republicans' response, House Speaker Newt Gingrich charged that
"strong leadership has disappeared" in the fight against teenage drug use
since President Clinton was elected in 1992. Gingrich said there has been
"a resounding silence from the White House on drugs" that has resulted in
skyrocketing use of drugs by teens.

He said President Clinton's proposal for cutting drug use effectively meant
that, by 2007, youth drug use would be about where it was 15 years earlier
in 1992 since so many more teens were using drugs.

Gingrich said that was an unacceptable "timetable for defeat" and pledged
the Republican-dominated Congress would propose more sweeping legislation
to shrink drug use.

Gingrich offered no timetable for such an initiative but insisted President
Clinton withdraw his "so-called drug plan and its hodgepodge of half-steps
and half-truth" and join Congress in a broader effort.

Clinton's anti-drug plan for the 1999 budget year starting next Oct. 1
would cost a record $17 billion, an increase of $1 billion over the current
fiscal year.

It includes a $195 million national youth anti-drug media campaign, $50
million for school drug prevention coordinators, $163 million for border
patrols, as well as $74 million for interdiction efforts in the Andean
region and the Caribbean and to train Mexican counter-drug forces.

Clinton said his strategy envisions 1,000 more border patrol agents,
working closely with neighboring countries. They would use the latest
technologies to monitor the borders to keep illegal drugs from entering the
United States.