Unanimous Senate OKs Anti-Drug Plan To Expand Law Enforcement, Treatment

The Senate late Thursday unanimously approved a sweeping anti-drug measure encompassing dozens of programs aimed at bolstering law enforcement and improving treatment for addicts in an effort to expand the national crackdown on illegal narcotics.

The catchall bill, which would extend the Administration’s new anti-drug strategy on several fronts, was the product of efforts by many individual senators to impose a personal stamp on the national strategy.

Among its provisions are measures to stiffen federal penalties for drug offenders--including a 10-year mandatory sentence for those convicted of selling drugs to a minor--and to authorize the hiring of nearly 2,000 more federal agents, judges and prosecutors to cope with the narcotics menace.

Marks Second Step

Approval of the legislation marks the second step in a Senate effort to beef up the Administration’s initiative, which was unveiled by President Bush in a nationally televised address Sept. 5.

Last month, the Senate voted to add $1.1 billion to Bush’s original $7.9-billion proposal under a bipartisan compromise crafted after some Democrats advocated an even larger spending increase for the anti-drug campaign. The House has yet to take action on the Administration plan.

Passage of the measure came after the Senate, in a sign of its anti-drug zeal, voted approval of more than a dozen amendments without debate.

Among those measures was a proposal by Sen. Pete Wilson (D-Calif.) that urges the President to negotiate with the government of Mexico to allow U.S. authorities to pursue suspected drug traffickers across the Mexican border.

Other provisions, some of which were approved earlier this week, would for the first time authorize medical treatment on request for indigent drug addicts and launch a $500,000 pilot program for drug testing of federal prisoners.

The most significant elements in the legislation would provide reinforcements for federal law enforcement efforts, which have been strained by the anti-drug effort.

It authorizes the hiring of 1,000 additional FBI agents, 350 additional agents for the Drug Enforcement Administration, 300 more U.S. attorneys and earmarks a total of $26 million to provide additional law enforcement assistance to deal with the war on narcotics.

In addition, under an amendment introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the measure provides for the immediate hiring of 20 new federal judges to be dispatched to Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and other cities in which drug trafficking is intensive.

In boosting penalties for drug offenders, the legislation directs federal judges to deny bond privileges for convicted drug traffickers as they seek to appeal their convictions. It doubles to 10 years the mandatory sentence for federal crimes committed with automatic weapons.

The stiffer penalties, including the new 10-year mandatory sentence for those who peddle drugs to minors, would apply only to federal crimes, which make up only a small percentage of all drug offenses. But Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.), sponsor of the provision, urged that the stiff sentence for selling drugs to children be adopted by “all 50 states.”

The exact price tag for the measure could not be determined amid the scramble of amendments and votes that preceded final passage of the legislation, but its total was in excess of $50 million.

While approving the vast majority of amendments offered to the bill, the Senate drew the line on two controversial proposals.

It killed an amendment that would have permitted government agents to shoot down, as a last resort, private planes smuggling illegal drugs into the United States. The measure, offered by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was a toned-down version of a proposal approved by the Senate earlier this year. Hoping to attract wider support, McConnell had revised his proposal to include new safeguards against the accidental killing of innocent people.

But the Senate voted, 52 to 48, to kill the amendment after Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio), a former Marine fighter pilot, denounced it as “ludicrous.” The rejection makes it unlikely that any shoot-down proposal will win approval of the full Congress.

The Senate also rejected, 75 to 24, a proposal by Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) that would have required mandatory drug testing for parents receiving welfare benefits under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program.

Californians Fire Salvo

Earlier Thursday, several California congressmen fired another salvo at the Bush Administration for its delay in deciding which areas will be given special status as major fronts in the war on drugs.

The lawmakers, all Democrats, expressed outrage that William J. Bennett, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, had not responded to their requests to include Southern California, even after last week’s unprecedented cocaine haul in Sylmar.

The Administration has until February to announce whether Los Angeles will receive special status.