Bentsen Assails ‘Popgun War’ on Drugs

Democratic vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen attacked the Republican Administration on Saturday for “botching” the war on drugs and said it was now proposing “to pass the torch of incompetence on to the junior senator from Indiana”--Dan Quayle.

“They fight drugs the way they fight forest fires in Yellowstone Park--they let the fires rage and hope they’ll burn themselves out,” Bentsen said at an outdoor rally along the waterfront here.

In 1983, George Bush was put in charge of coordinating what Bentsen called the Administration’s “popgun war” against drugs. Since then, the import of illegal drugs into the United States has tripled and the number of cocaine-related deaths has doubled, the Texas senator said. If elected President, Bush has said he would have Quayle take charge of the drug war.

“This Administration would like you to believe they’re winning the war on drugs. That’s a joke,” Bentsen said. “It’s like George Bush posing as an environmentalist.”

Offers Three Proposals

If elected, Michael S. Dukakis and Bentsen say they will do better battling drugs, and the vice presidential candidate put forth three proposals. First, Bentsen said a Democratic Administration will put one person in charge of the war on drugs. The Reagan-Bush Administration, he contended, is “trying to fight that battle with eight Cabinet officers, 26 federal agencies, but only one general--and his name is Noriega,” a reference to Panamanian leader Manual A. Noriega, who has been indicted on U.S. drug-trafficking charges.

Bentsen said a Democratic Administration would give more money to the Coast Guard and Customs Service to stop the flow of drugs into the country. And finally, “we’ll cut off foreign aid to governments that refuse to cooperate with us in the war on drugs,” Bentsen said.

Earlier in the day, Bentsen visited a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s office in Carson. Joined by Sen. Alan Cranston, he talked with law enforcement officers about the fight against gangs. With the cameras rolling, he peered at a confiscated automobile pocked with nine bullet holes. Sheriff’s officers said one gang member had died and two were injured when the car was involved in a drive-by shooting.

Plans to Oppose Bill

Later in the day, Bentsen said in an interview that he planned to vote against a politically charged gun-control proposal now before Congress. Known as the Brady Amendment, it would set a national seven-day waiting requirement for purchasers of handguns.

Bentsen said he believed a waiting period for handguns was “reasonable” but said he opposed making it a federal requirement.

“I would leave it to the states,” he said. “If it comes up like this (as a federal requirement), then I would vote against it.”

In the past, the Texas senator has staunchly opposed gun-control measures, but this bill--named in honor of James S. Brady, the White House press secretary wounded in the 1981 assassination attempt on President Reagan--is strongly supported by the Democrats. The House is scheduled to vote on the measure Wednesday.