WASHINGTON (AP) Political opposites Mario Cuomo and William Bennett are
joining forces to lead an advertising campaign aimed at dissuading young
people from using illegal drugs.

Cuomo, the liberal former Democratic governor of New York, said Sunday that
he and Bennett, a conservative Republican who served as President Reagan's
drug policy coordinator, will announce officially Sept. 3 that they will
assume leadership of the Partnership for a DrugFree America.

Together, they plan to seek $350 million from Congress and private sources
to bombard young people with primetime antidrug messages.

President Clinton's $16 billion antidrug strategy for 1998 calls for a
$350 million media campaign if private sources provide half the money.

``If we get the bill, they'll see more of these ads more often,'' Cuomo
told The Associated Press.

Although the television industry already donates some air time to public
service messages, including the partnership's ads, Cuomo said a more
concerted effort is needed.

``If you limit yourself to what they can afford to do as publicly held
corporations ... what you wind up with if you depend on their charity is
once every two or three weeks a kid might see a commercial. That
trivializes it,'' Cuomo said earlier Sunday on ABC's ``This Week.''

America's overall use of drugs has declined dramatically over the past 15
years from 20 million people to 12 million, according to the latest
government statistics. But teenage drug use in the past five years has
done a turnaround, rising sharply.

``We're alarmed,'' retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who directs Clinton's drug
policy office, said on ``Fox News Sunday.''

``We're concerned that drug use among children has gone up substantially
over the last several years. And we're seeking the arrival of new drugs,
like methamphetamine, which we're trying to get in front of,'' he said.
``We're trying to stamp out this terrible epidemic before it gets as
damaging as crack cocaine.''

The percentage of 12yearolds who know a friend or classmate who has used
illegal drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, more than doubled from 10.6
percent in 1996 to 23.5 percent this year, the Commission on Substance
Abuse Among America's Adolescents reported last week.

``The age at which kids are getting into drugs is younger and younger. And
the perceived risk is now lower,'' Bennett said on ABC. ``And this is in
part because of these legalization and decriminalization efforts, which I
think are just disastrous on the morale of families.''