Biden Says Bush Fights Wrong Drug War

Accusing the Bush Administration of “fighting a war that’s already being won” by concentrating its anti-drug efforts on casual users, the chief Democratic spokesman on drug issues Wednesday proposed an alternative strategy focused on new treatment facilities and prisons for hard-core addicts.

The Administration has concentrated its rhetoric on casual use, which has been in sharp decline for five years, “to avoid doing anything about the hard-core user,” which is a far more difficult and expensive problem, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) charged in a briefing for reporters Wednesday.

An Administration spokeswoman denied Biden’s charge.

“The successes we have seen from the drug strategy have put more hard-core users behind bars than we ever anticipated,” White House spokeswoman Alixe Glenn said. Bush plans to unveil the second phase of his drug strategy today.

Biden’s plan differs in several major respects from the Administration’s. For example, Biden would greatly expand treatment facilities for addicts, guaranteeing treatment for all within three years. The Administration has proposed only limited expansion of treatment facilities.

The Democrat’s proposal also includes 10 new regional federal prisons that states could use to house and treat drug-addicted offenders, as opposed to Bush, who would leave most new prison construction up to the states.

Biden also would toughen federal gun controls on semi-automatic weapons, an idea that Bush repeatedly has rejected, mostly recently in his press conference Wednesday.

Overall, Biden’s plan would cost $14.6 billion next year, while the Administration is expected to propose about $10.5 billion in anti-drug spending. Neither side has said where the money would come from or how much their plans would cost in future years.

Like Bush, Biden would designate Los Angeles and several other major drug trafficking centers as “high intensity” problem areas that would receive extra federal aid. Biden would provide considerably more aid than Bush would--about $300 million spread over five areas compared to $25 million.

The dispute between Biden and Bush centers on two basic disagreements. First, the Administration has left state and local governments with most of the costs of its drug control strategy, arguing that the federal government cannot pick up the cost because of the need to reduce the federal deficit. The Administration, for example, would require states to test all criminal defendants for drug use--a measure that would cost several billion dollars annually--but would not provide federal money to pay the costs. Biden, by contrast, would greatly expand the federal share of the cost of fighting drugs, adding 1,000 new Drug Enforcement Administration agents, 900 new prosecutors and hundreds of new FBI agents, as well as picking up the cost of prison construction.

Secondly, Biden’s plan, concentrating on hard-core users, emphasizes the concerns of major urban areas where large populations of addicts have caused tremendous strains on society, particularly in crime-ridden inner-city neighborhoods.

Bush and his drug policy chief, William J. Bennett, have focused much of their effort on casual users. That approach addresses a major fear of suburban families.

Biden was designated last year to develop a drug-control strategy for the Senate’s Democratic majority. His views in the past have had considerable influence on the shaping of federal policy on the issue.

The two most controversial aspects of Biden’s plan are likely to be his call for 10 new regional prisons and his gun control proposal.

The prison proposal, and a companion proposal for 10 “boot camps” to be set up at closed military bases, carries a hefty price tag, at least $700 million in the first year.

The gun control plan would adopt a proposal by Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) to ban the manufacture or sale of nine types of semi-automatic rifles.

But the National Rifle Assn. and other gun control opponents have lobbied intensively against the idea.