CAMPAIGN ’88 : Jackson Gives Details of Anti-Drug Program

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, seeking to counter criticism that his presidential campaign emphasizes style rather than substance, on Thursday released details of an anti-drug program that would boost federal funding 72% above Reagan Administration levels.

A campaign policy statement said the increase, from $3.9 billion to $6.7 billion, would pay for expansions of drug interdiction, law enforcement and drug abuse prevention and treatment programs.

Jackson, a longtime crusader against drug abuse, has broadened that message during his presidential campaign, denouncing drugs as “the number one threat to our national security” and warning that the United States is “militarily inferior” to “drug lords and drug smugglers.”

But his speeches have been short on detail, prompting questions about how he would pay for his proposed “war on drugs” and other programs. Campaign aides said the anti-drug budget, distributed to reporters during a Jackson appearance at a high school in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Ill., was the first step in an effort to answer those criticisms.

The largest single increase Jackson proposed--from $425 million to $1.7 billion--would provide for treatment on demand for drug abusers.

In a news conference focusing on his drug initiative, however, Jackson said he did not know how a $300-million increase he called for in the Coast Guard budget would be spent. Those details, he said, would be worked out later.