WE MUST DIG IN ANEW, FIGHT TO WIN THE DRUG WAR;
RECENT STEPS SHOULD HELP THE NATION REVERSE NUMBERS THAT SHOW THE ALARMING
IMPACT OF DRUG ABUSE ON THE NATION'S TEENS.
Copyright (c) 1997, Guy Gannett Communications, Inc.

In Washington, and in Maine, you increasingly hear the
tone of defeatism when the topic of drugs works its way
into public conversation (as it will continue to do for
some time). Common are phrases like ''the drug war is
unwinnable'' and ''what's wrong with legalization,
anyway.'' Pundits and legalization advocates routinely (and
somewhat gleefully) oscillate between two extremes
calling the drug war insoluble and treating drugs as no
problem at all. The truth, on both counts, is quite
different. I grew up in Maine, and have seen the impact of
drugs there from Lewiston and Portland to Winthrop and
Readfield. However, after two years in Washington, as
chiefofstaff and chief counsel to a congressional
committee charged with oversight of the nation's drug war,
I have gotten a brutal education much of it disturbing,
some of it hopeful, almost all of it previously unknown (at
least to me).

First, the threat posed by widening drug abuse among
teens, powerful international drug cartels, drugrelated
violent crime and the increasing impact of drugs on our
nation's character is plainly enormous. On the other
hand, it must be acknowledged that the resources available
to confront this threat, both federally and locally, have
hardly been tapped.

These two facts, in early 1995, spurred the new
Republican Congress to initiate what I sincerely believe
are significant steps toward reversing the riptide of drug
abuse, drug trafficking and violent drug crime. These
hopeful steps range from novel drug prevention efforts,
such as the Drug Free Communities Act (soon to pass the
U.S. House), to a massive 1996 infusion of funding for law
enforcement (including Byrne Grants, which help finance the
D.A.R.E. and G.R.E.A.T. antidrug programs), drug
interdiction and international antidrug programs. A little
history is worth recounting. Somehow, between 1992 and
1995, we seem to have lost our way as a nation and
stumbled. That stumble hurt us, and it hurt our kids. The
facts are now a matter of public record.

In 1992, President Bush committed $ 1.5 billion to drug
interdiction. In 1993, President Clinton cut $ 200 million
out of that interdiction effort and mothballed U.S.
Customs' antidrug aircraft (the sort that found and pursued
traffickers from Colombia). Clinton transferred
intelligencegathering aircraft out of the Caribbean,
rolled back National Guard involvement in antidrug efforts
(a vital part of our border and internal program), halved
the number of Coast Guard cutters, ship days, flying hours,
and personnel dedicated to drug interdiction and left much
of the U.S. border (both in the Southwest and in places
like Maine) vulnerable.

Sadly, these lost assets did not reappear in the federal
budget dedicated to drug prevention or law enforcement. In
fact, the president cut his own antidrug policy office from
146 persons down to 25. What is more, he did not feel
compelled to speak more than two dozen times on the topic
of drugs in more than 2,600 speeches and interviews
during 1993 and 1994. Plainly, drugs were not a priority.
In 1994, the administration further cut drug interdiction
by $ 18 million; in 1995, it fell by another $ 15 million.
By 1996, President Clinton's strategy had put drug
interdiction at a level nearly $ 100 million below the 1992
level, and sourcecountry programs (dedicated to ideas like
coca crop eradication and alternative crop production in
places like Peru, Bolivia and Colombia) at $ 123 million
below their 1992 levels.

These were discouraging signs even to many who
supported the president. We now know that his own chiefs of
the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and Coast Guard
independently (albeit internally) warned that this approach
could yield a deadly harvest. They were right.

Last year, for the third year in a row, 400 tons of
cocaine entered our country roughly 70 percent over our
border with Mexico, and the rest along northern and coastal
borders from Maine to Puerto Rico. Last year, Mexico
produced 150 tons of methamphetamine, a deadly drug
ravaging California and working its way eastward. Mexican
drug cartels now ship two deadly types of heroin north, and
a marijuana that is 25 times more potent than what Maine
saw in the 1970s.

As a nation, we are under siege. Other statistics are
more poignant. At home, we lose more than 10,000 children
annually to drugs and drugrelated crime, all avoidable. If
any other foe inflicted human havoc on that scale
especially on our vulnerable and precious children we
would respond with fury. But not, it seems, if the foe is a
drug cartel or trafficker, pusher or legalizer.

Over the past three years, we have witnessed a 200
percent increase in drug use by the nation's children
kids ages 8 to 17. At the same time, the price of dangerous
drugs has fallen dramatically, availability has risen and
the street purity of cocaine, heroin and marijuana is
greater.

Children enticed

Young teens and younger children are being drawn into
the vortex of addiction; I recently saw LSD (whose
popularity is increasing in many areas) marketed with the
Lion King and Mickey Mouse on it. I ask parents: Do you
think that these traffickers are targetmarketing ''The
Lion King'' to 16yearolds? If so, think again. (Sadly,
only about 25 percent of parents talk to their kids about
drugs.)

Three weeks ago, for the fourth year in a row, the Drug
Abuse Warning Network, which collects emergency room data
from across the nation, reported recordlevel emergency
room admissions for cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and
THC or marijuana many involving youngsters. In 1995,
overall drugrelated emergency room episodes jumped 12
percent. Cocainerelated episodes rose 21 percent. And
heroinrelated episodes skyrocketed 27 percent.

THC or marijuanarelated emergencies, as a result of
higher purities and the lacing of marijuana with PCP, were
up 32 percent. And methamphetamine emergencies were up 35
percent. Supply and purity are so high, and prices so low,
that kids can buy or have pushed on them drugs that
were unaffordable and unavailable 10 years ago. And these
drugs are destroying young lives in record numbers.

In 1994, there were 750,000 more teenagers using drugs
than in 1992, a reversal of the 1981 to 1992 downward
trend. Even the Justice Department made the point recently
that drugrelated violent juvenile crime may double by the
year 2010 if we do not turn it back now.

Communities must rally

So, where is the hope? Dwelling on past mistakes if
futile. We must get beyond regret, partisanship, and fear
into the light of a reenergized effort to bring
communities together in an effort involving both community
and federal leadership. We must reclaim our streets,
schools, homes, and children in short, the nation's
future. How?

This is the good news. The answer has slowly been
emerging from congressional debate. After more than two
dozen hearings on drugs (and endless meetings with the drug
czar, DEA administrator, foreign leaders, parents, addicts,
kids of all ages, and every stripe of citizen), new ideas
are emerging. And some new laws.

On the domestic side, there is a bold new approach. The
Drug Free Communities Act of 1997 will offer between $
50,000 and $ 100,000 to any community in America that can
sustain, for six months, a strong, highparticipation,
antidrug coalition (including parents, teachers,
businesses, law enforcement officers, churches, doctors,
policy makers and others). In this law, which requires the
birth and survival of a successful volunteer antidrug
effort before federal funds appear, there is both
flexibility and accountability. What is more, this bill
(which originated in our subcommittee) has the resounding
support of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and was the
brainchild of two Republicans and two Democrats; expect it
to be law by summer.

Added support expected

Also on the domestic side, expect congressional efforts
to enhance border support, from Operation Sledgehammer off
the coast of Maine to more personnel and analysts at DEA
and Customs. Perhaps more importantly, crucial state and
local law enforcement programs will get added support, such
as the New England State Police Information Network or
NESPIN, which allows local law enforcement to network
nationwide on a secure database when following criminal
leads.

That federally funded database the Regional
Information Sharing System (RISS) has already proved
invaluable to Maine law enforcement officers.

On the international side, there is again reason for
hope. The new Congress disagreed, in 1995 and 1996, with
the deep cuts in drug interdiction, international drug
programs, and the president's own office. Congress insisted
that the White House dedicate 154 employees (instead of 25)
to the drug problem, added new funds for drug prevention,
refocused drug treatment on proven techniques, instilled
discipline (by statute) in each of the 50 agencies with a
role in the drug war, insisted on measurable goals
(lacking since 1992), and began the Bipartisan Drug Policy
Working Group (attended by congressional Republicans and
Democrats, as well as by the administration). These are
small but positive steps.

Congress boosts funds On federal funding, the new
Congress in 1996 increased DEA's budget by $ 172 million, $
20 million over the president's request, and added 75 new
DEA agents. International programs received $ 35 million
more than in 1995, and the National Guard, Coast Guard,
Border Patrol and military support for the drug war
(which is growing) all increased.

The truth: We are a long way from success, which I
define as a drugfree America. But with 70 percent of all
crime in America stemming from substance abuse or drug
trafficking (including 80 percent of all domestic violence
and most property and violent crime), we must all resolve
to forge ahead.

In Washington where ice fishing, ''mud season,'' black
flies and cheap lobster are things of vacation we are
trying. But in Maine, where parents care, where teachers
who taught me are now retiring and there remains a deep
concern about the values we pass to our kids not to
mention their safety and wellbeing it is essential that
we not forget the threat that drugs and related crime pose.
There is no room for cynicism in this new world, and no
time for those who dare to think the drug war is either
insoluble or unimportant.

The great leaders of another war were once described as
''breathing in fear and breathing out confidence.'' That is
the mission that awaits us today. To build community
antidrug coalitions. Talk with our kids about drugs. Demand
more of our leaders, and more of ourselves. We must cast
off words like unwinnable, and dig in for the fight. Only
if we believe in our children and in their future, will
they believe in themselves and in the same drugfree
society that we hope for them.