The Two General McCaffreys

Since his appointment as the White House drug czar in February 1996, Gen.
Barry McCaffrey has consistently said the right thing about drugs.

He stresses that increased treatment, not law enforcement, is the best way
to reduce drug usage. In January, he acknowledged that world production of
cocaine and opium was increasing. "If you want to fight a war on drugs, sit
down at your own kitchen table and talk to your own children," he told
National Public Radio last week.

Little of this, however, is reflected in Washington's drug programs, which
General McCaffrey coordinates. This month, Congress will make an initial
decision whether to approve the Administration's budget request for drug
control programs overseas.

As it did last year, the Administration has asked for a large increase in
counternarcotics aid to Latin American police and militaries. As it did
last year, Congress is likely to approve. The 1998 budget will probably
more than double the $75 million that Washington spent in Latin American
counternarcotics in 1996. These programs are part of a law enforcement
effort that consistently eats up about twothirds of Federal antidrug
spending.

Until taking the drug czar job, General McCaffrey was the head of the
United States Army Southern Command, which worked with Latin militaries and
police to fight cocaine. He knows that the overseas programs have succeeded
largely in pushing cocaine from country to country.

Plenty of members of Congress know that too, but they throw money at
militarized efforts overseas and balk at financing treatment, to appear
tough on crime and drugs. General McCaffrey's colleagues in the
Administration prefer the same expedient course. General McCaffrey has not
helped at times by carelessly praising his Latin American counterparts. He
called Mexican antidrug chief Gen. Jesús Gutiérrez Rebollo a man of
"unquestioned integrity" just weeks before General Gutiérrez was arrested
on corruption charges.

General McCaffrey, at least, has championed a new program to prevent
juvenile drug use, and has achieved an increase in treatment beds. But
those initiatives are minor compared with the large increases in the
military and law enforcement budget that he has supported.

It is hard to think of anyone better placed to shift America's drug
priorities than General McCaffrey. A respected general who has directed the
drug wars has an unusual opportunity to convince Congress and the President
that war alone will not reduce drug use. General McCaffrey says it. But he
will not say it in the budget, where it counts.

Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company