Reagan Proposes White House-Congress Panel to Seek New Ways to Fight Drugs

President Reagan, scrambling to wrest the politically sensitive drug issue from Congress, called Wednesday for a bipartisan executive-legislative task force to propose within 45 days new ways to fight illegal drugs.

Reagan urged that the task force consider greater use of the U.S. military and National Guard, new education and prevention programs and tougher penalties against drug operatives, including capital punishment for “kingpins” and “cop killers.”

“It is time to make illegal drugs public enemy No. 1,” the President declared to loud applause in a commencement speech at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. “It is time to say America’s tolerance for illegal drugs is zero.”

Reagan’s call for new ideas to combat illicit narcotics was issued amid a push in Congress to pass measures addressing complaints by voters who, according to opinion polls, are increasingly concerned about the effectiveness of the government’s drug fight.

So hastily was Reagan’s proposal put together that his own National Drug Enforcement Coordinating Group did not know about it until he had included it in his speech at the Coast Guard Academy. The group, which coordinates drug enforcement efforts across the government, met Wednesday morning and participants said that there had been no mention of the executive-legislative task force that Reagan proposed a few hours later.

In Congress, Democratic leaders indicated that they have no intention of waiting 45 days for the new commission to report.

Senate Majority Leader Robert C. Byrd (W. Va.) announced the appointment of a Democratic “working group on substance abuse” to evaluate the anti-drug measures proposed in legislation and find ways to pay for them. Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N. Y.) were named co-chairmen of the 13-member panel. Byrd asked them to submit recommendations to him by June 29.

Wright Has Own Task Force

In the House, Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.) last week named his own Democratic task force to provide recommendations by June 21 on which anti-drug legislation to push.

Disputes over an anti-drug strategy prompted the Senate on Wednesday to postpone action on the defense spending bill, which carries several amendments designed to curb drug trafficking.

Although Reagan pleaded that “excessive drug politics” be removed from election-year debates, his call for an executive-legislative task force report by July 2 was an obvious counter to the Democrats’ plans.

In Washington, Wright said that “the House welcomes the Administration’s interest in the drug issue . . . . If it would be helpful to sit down with the Senate and Administration as we develop this legislation, we would be happy to do so.”

Wilson Morris, Wright’s press secretary, said by telephone that this means the House’s Democratic-controlled committees “will write our own legislation. If the Administration has any legislative proposals, they can send them up to the committees.”

Morris added that the White House had asked for a joint meeting of congressional leaders and Administration officials next Tuesday.

Bipartisan Action Urged

Byrd said that in the Senate his working group’s recommendations would “form the basis for bipartisan legislation which could be considered promptly . . . . I hope that our colleagues on the Republican side will be pursuing a similar arrangement so that the Senate will be able to reinforce all areas in our war on drugs with strong bipartisan support.”

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), who flew here with Reagan on Air Force One, said in response to the President’s task force initiative: “People are making a feeding frenzy of the issue. Things are getting a little crazy out there . . . . If you offer (an anti-drug) amendment on anything, it’ll carry.”

The President made clear that he strongly backs imposing capital punishment in drug-related murders. An attempt by Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-N. Y.) to attach such a proposal to the defense spending bill has prompted Senate liberals who oppose the death penalty to threaten a filibuster against the measure.

Reagan pushed also for greater use of the military in drug surveillance and the National Guard in drug eradication and enforcement.

The House-passed version of the defense bill would give the President 45 days to “substantially halt” drug trafficking across the U.S. border from Latin America, using the military and National Guard.

Arrests by Military

The House bill would also permit military personnel to arrest drug suspects on U.S. soil but only in cases of hot pursuit. That would repeal a Civil War-era prohibition against using the military to enforce civil laws.

In contrast, the Senate’s pending defense measure would simply require that the military devote more hours of flying time to interdiction of drugs over the southern border. It would also permit the military for the first time to make arrests on the high seas.

Amendments to bring heavier military involvement into the drug fight have been sought in both chambers primarily by conservative Republicans seeking to offset efforts by Democrats to make election-year hay of the drug issue.

Sources said that the more modest Senate bill has the blessing of Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci and the President.

In his speech, Reagan claimed “a remarkable record of achievement” for his Administration in what he termed the “crusade” against illegal drugs. He said that drug task forces headed by Vice President George Bush had led to a 20% drop in major crime in South Florida and a 20-fold increase in cocaine seizures along the border with Mexico.

Interdiction Called Ineffectual

However, the General Accounting Office, Congress’ auditing agency, concluded last year that “relatively small proportions of the cocaine, marijuana and other illicit drugs smuggled into the United States are seized by drug interdiction agencies.”

During his visit here, the President toured the Coast Guard cutter Vigorous, where he was shown a display of weapons used in intercepting drug smugglers as well as some cocaine and marijuana that had been seized.

Staff writers William J. Eaton and Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this story from Washington.