Meese Denies U.S. Prosecutors Plan Drive Against Drug Users

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said that government efforts to curb drug trafficking will continue to focus on suppliers and distributors and that there will not be a broad move by federal prosecutors against individual users.

Meese said Thursday that news reports suggesting that federal prosecutors would change traditional drug enforcement strategy by pursuing individual users were “an inaccurate interpretation of what was said.”

The practice has been for the federal government to concentrate on breaking narcotics rings. It has been left largely up to state and local law enforcement agencies to go after individual drug users.

A change in the federal strategy was suggested Monday by Deputy Associate Atty. Gen. Charles W. Blau, who briefed reporters on the progress made by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program, which involves 13 task forces around the country.

1,150 Indictments

Blau said that, despite about 1,150 indictments against more than 4,000 persons since mid-1983, “people are out there using drugs, and we have not broken that curve.” He suggested that federal authorities might begin selectively prosecuting individual users to illustrate the connection between users and suppliers.

At a news conference Thursday, Meese was asked whether he was planning to do that. “There may be some users who are swept up in our activities against major traffickers,” he said.

But Meese added: “An interpretation of what was said (Monday), that we’re going into the retail business of trying to make street arrests of narcotics users, is not an accurate interpretation of what was said. The federal role is to deal with major traffickers.”

But Meese conceded that “there may be some local jurisdictions” that target individual drug users.