Bush Proposes 11% Fund Hike for Drug Battle

President Bush on Thursday proposed boosting federal spending by 11% next year on programs to combat narcotics. And, although he said there are indications that “drug use is on the way down,” he declared that the nation cannot afford to let up in its war on drugs.

The proposed $11.7 billion in drug-related funding for fiscal 1992 “will help keep the pressure on,” Bush said, “and I believe it persuasively demonstrates that our Administration is committed to defeating the menace of drugs and that that commitment is unswerving.”

Outlining the Administration’s 1992 drug control strategy at a ceremony attended by Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan and law enforcement officials from various agencies, Bush said that he is “particularly proud” of a $100-million proposal for expanding drug treatment services.

If state governments and insurance providers, which together account for nearly 80% of spending on drug treatment, approve similar increases, another 200,000 persons can receive treatment in 1992, the Administration said. The present system can treat about 2 million.

The Administration has been criticized for emphasizing enforcement at the expense of treatment. Indeed, two key senators--Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) and Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)--said that the 1992 strategy still would slight treatment.

“Despite its rhetoric to the contrary, the Administration continues to shortchange treatment and prevention programs that reduce the demand for drugs,” Kennedy said. “Casual drug use has dropped in the past five years but hard-core use is still rampant. This strategy fails to address the heart of the problem.”

Biden said that the strategy neglects “critical” groups of drug addicts. “Only 7 in 100 pregnant addicts were treated last year (while) 300,000 more drug babies were born,” he said. “Today’s new policy will not budge these figures more than a few percent.”

That sentiment was shared by Dr. Mitchell S. Rosenthal, president of Phoenix House, a private, nonprofit drug abuse agency that operates treatment centers in Southern California, New York and New Jersey.

“We are still no closer to bringing on line desperately needed new treatment facilities than we were almost two years ago, when the national strategy was first announced,” said Rosenthal. “My fear is that as more middle class Americans continue to reject casual drug use, the public will come to ignore the heavy-using and high-risk users who are responsible for most of the drug-related violence, crime and social disorder in this country.”

The Administration noted that the goals set in previous years had been met or surpassed and outlined several new targets:

--A 9% decline in overall drug use between now and 1993, for a cumulative five-year reduction of 20%. The strategy calls for a reduction of 60% by 2001.

--Similar reductions in adolescent drug use, which declined 13% from 1988 to 1990.

--A 30% reduction in the number of people reporting weekly or more frequent cocaine use, and a 65% reduction by 2001.

While the Administration said that most of its previous goals had been met, it acknowledged “a mixed picture” in the area of drug availability.

Although there is strong secondary evidence of reduced availability, such as higher cocaine prices coupled with declining purity, a recent survey determined that the number of high school seniors reporting that cocaine and marijuana are “readily available” had declined only 7% since 1988.