War on Drugs Shifting Its Focus to Hard-Core Addicts

Declaring that hard-core drug users hold the key to the nation’s narcotics problem, the Administration today will announce a new strategy targeted at heavy instead of casual users.

“This is a real switch from what we’ve seen in past policies,” Lee P. Brown, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, said in an interview. “It’s a national imperative because of the misery, despair and--all too often--death that we’ve seen.”

But in outlining the “interim” strategy before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Brown does not plan to detail how the shift will be financed--other than to rely on enactment of the Administration’s national health care legislation, which is to provide substantial drug treatment.

Instead, Brown explained in the interview, he is meeting with federal agencies involved in enforcement and treatment so that their budgets will reflect the shift in strategy.

“The principal drug problem lies with hard-core drug users--those heaviest users who use drugs at least once a week” the strategy states. “Hard-core drug use has not been reduced by past anti-drug efforts, especially in our inner cities and among the disadvantaged.”

Nationwide cocaine medical emergencies reached 199,800 in 1992 and heroin emergencies totaled 48,000--the highest levels since data for the Drug Abuse Warning Network were first reported.

Illustrating that hard-core users fuel the overall demand for drugs, the strategy cited a study showing that while heavy cocaine users constitute only about 20% of all users, they account for roughly two-thirds of total cocaine consumption.

To reach the hard-core user, the strategy calls for cutting the gap between those seeking treatment and available treatment capacity. As many as 1.1 million people who need treatment are not now being treated, it said.

The Administration’s national health plan will provide “a substantial drug treatment benefit so that those who need treatment should have the means to get it,” the document said.

But the Administration plan actually could reduce treatment, according to Ellen M. Weber, co-director of national policy for the Legal Action Center, a nonprofit organization that specializes in legal and social issues caused by drug and alcohol abuse.

She noted that long-term residential treatment is not included in the proposed benefits package and that it is unclear whether state and local revenue sources, which account for 45% of current funding for treatment, will be able to support that level of assistance.

William J. Bennett, who preceded Brown as leader of the nation’s war on drugs, said in an interview Tuesday that he agrees with placing emphasis on drug addicts, but he added that he could see “no real shifts in money. It’s just rhetorical.”

The new strategy appears to adopt an approach emphasized by Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to combatting crime by trying to reach its “root cause.”

“We won’t just look at a line item in the budget that has narcotics written on it and say, ‘That’s drug control,’ ” Brown said. “Rather we’ll look at what we do in health reform, the educational system, economic development, particularly in developing more jobs, and what we do in terms of decent housing.

“If we can address those issues--that’s what is pushing the hard-core drug user in my estimation--then we’ll make a difference,” Brown said.

In trying to treat hard-core drug abusers, the strategy calls for beginning with “the highest priority populations.” For instance, only one in 10 pregnant drug users is thought to be receiving treatment.

The strategy also endorses focusing on the heavy users already behind bars and coupling their treatment with effective transitional services and care and supervision after release. Otherwise, some 200,000 criminals who went to jail or prison with drug-related problems will be released untreated for their addiction.

In calling for steps to reduce drug-related violence, the drug officials noted that the nation’s courts and prisons are overburdened by drug arrests.