FEDS PUSH TO EXPAND DRUG COURT SYSTEM

MIAMI (AP)-- Expanding drug courts that divert nonviolent offenders from
prison to treatment and boosting random drug testing of high school
students are among the initiatives that could cut long-term demand for
illegal drugs in the United States, drug czar John Walters said Wednesday.

"Drug use is a preventable illness," Walters said in an interview with The
Associated Press. "It's about allowing those who are at risk to get help
early."

Walters, in Miami to release President Bush's 2005 drug control strategy,
said intervention in the lives of drug abusers was a key element along with
treatment programs and aggressive law enforcement efforts, including
interdiction of drug shipments and eradication of coca fields in South
America and poppy farms in Afghanistan.

"We know the things that work, and we want to use that knowledge to expand
them," said Walters, director of the White House's drug control policy office.

Bush is asking Congress for an increase of $30.5 million for more drug
courts, which allow judges to place thousands of nonviolent drug offenders
in treatment programs rather than hard time in prison. There are now about
1,600 such courts in all 50 states.

In Miami's drug court alone -- the nation's first in 1989 -- more than
10,000 people have "graduated," with only about 4.3 percent committing new
crimes.

Walters announced the president's drug strategy in the Miami drug court run
by Judge Jeffrey Rosinek, who conducted court proceedings before Walters
spoke. Rosinek closely questioned one defendant about why he had failed a
required drug test, expressing skepticism about the man's reasons for
taking illegal barbiturates.

"You took a barbiturate for a toothache? Was that a doctor-ordered
barbiturate?" Rosinek asked before giving the man another chance to avoid
prison by staying clean for one month and attending Narcotics Anonymous
sessions.

Like the drug courts, Walters said Bush's proposed $25.4 million for random
drug testing at high schools that voluntarily decided to test would help
deter young people from drugs before they become addicts or turn to crimes
to support their habits.

"We know when we intervene early, we can have maximum impact," he said.