GARY, Ind. (Reuter) Leaders of the U.S. Conference of
Mayors said they have put together draft recommendations for a
war on drugs that emphasized treatment for addiction rather than
law enforcement.

The announcement Friday was made after Gary Mayor Scott
King, cochairman of drug control task force for the mayors'
group, met with other mayors and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
director of the White House antidrug fight.

The session held in a drugplagued Gary which in some
years has had more homicides per capita than any other U.S. city
was designed to plan for the White House Mayors Conference on
Drug Control in Washington next month.

The draft action plan developed by the mayors called on
parents, business leaders and school systems to develop broader
drug reduction strategies, and recommended additional drug
tretment facilities.

The plans suggested addiction treatment should be made
available to those without health insurance, and called on the
country's insurance industry to provide better coverage for
substance abuse treatment.

``I think what we've done here today is our level best to
formulate a bottomup strategy to combat together the scourge of
drugs,'' said King. ``We see that cities both large and small
throughout the United States have some of the same very serious
problems.''

McCaffrey said money in the 1997 federal budget for drug
prevention and education amounts to about $3 for child, and is
''simply not enough.''