WHITE HOUSE SEEKS DRUG USAGE DECREASE

President Bush Holds Up A Report That Outlines His New Battle Plan In The
War Against Drugs During A Speech In The East Room At The White House In
Washington On Tuesday.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush set a goal Tuesday of cutting drug abuse by 25
percent in five years through greater efforts toward prevention, treatment
of addicts and improved law enforcement.

Bush announced his administration's drug-fighting strategy, which also
seeks a 10 percent drop in illegal drug use in two years.

"We've got a problem in this country: Too many people use drugs," he said.
"This is an individual tragedy, and as a result it is a social crisis."

The administration says Bush's budget proposal for next year, announced
last week, would spend 6 percent more for treatment and 10 percent more for
drug interdiction. Overall, $19.2 billion would be spent on fighting drugs,
which would be a 2 percent increase over the current budget.

Bush said some of the most important anti-drug work will have to come not
from the federal government, but from communities, religious groups and
families.

He called for "armies of compassion," directed through religious
institutions, to send the message that "We love you. We love you so much
we're going to convince you not to use drugs in the future."

"There is a moral reason for this fight," Bush said to lawmakers,
ambassadors and anti-drug officials in the East Room of the White House.
"Drugs rob men and women and children of their dignity and their character.
Illegal drugs are the enemies of ambition and hope."

While the anti-drug strategy includes some new programs, including a $5
million Parents Drug Corps, and much of it emphasizes a need to make
existing programs more effective.

Among the priorities are identifying people who need treatment but are
unlikely to seek it, such as the homeless; helping recovering addicts stay
clean; and doing more to disrupt drug traffickers' financial and
distribution networks.

White House drug policy director John Walters said it also is important to
change public attitudes.

"We have to undermine the cynicism that people are always going to use
drugs at roughly the same amount that they're using now. That's not true.
And my goal is to demonstrate that's not true," he said in an interview.

The report comes two months after Walters was confirmed for the
Cabinet-level post over the objections of some top Democrats. A protege of
former drug policy director William Bennett, Walters was seen as being more
focused on punishing traffickers and fighting drugs abroad than in helping
drug users through treatment programs.

One Democrat who opposed Walters, Senate Judiciary Committee chairman
Patrick Leahy, said he welcomed Bush's call for a "balanced approach."