Meese Drug Panel to Combine Prevention, Enforcement Effort

Policy-making procedures for the federal government’s war on drugs are being consolidated in the Justice Department under an executive order President Reagan plans to issue, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III said Tuesday.

The job of overseeing drug prevention and treatment programs as well as law enforcement efforts are being combined under the National Drug Enforcement Policy Board, a panel chaired by Meese that previously had authority solely over law enforcement functions.

The policy board, which was created in 1984, will develop budget priorities for every federal agency with a role in combatting the illicit use of narcotics, Meese said at a news conference.

For example, oversight functions for drug prevention programs now operated by the Health and Human Services Department will come under the board’s control. HHS Secretary Otis R. Bowen, now a board member, will become the panel’s vice chairman.

The policy board also will be enlarged to include the secretaries of education, labor, housing and urban development, interior and agriculture.

Gets Expanded Authority

Its authority is being expanded to give it oversight of federal drug prevention, education, treatment and rehabilitation programs.

Meese said the action would make it unnecessary for legislation to be introduced by Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to create a “drug czar” in the Administration.