Antidrug Strategy Lacks Credibility, McCaffrey Says

On his first day in office, the nation’s top federal drug official said Friday that the administration’s drug strategy lacks “adequate credibility” with Congress and with “the international coalition we’ve got to build” to combat illicit narcotics.

“I don’t think it’s fault-finding to say we’ve got a lot of work to do,” retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey said in an interview shortly after he was sworn in as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

It also marked the first day in a civilian post for McCaffrey since he took his oath as a military officer at West Point 36 years ago. A four-star general and the Army’s most decorated senior officer, he retired at midnight Thursday and was sworn in at a private ceremony by Eugene R. Sullivan, a former classmate at the military academy who is a judge on the Court of Military Appeals.

McCaffrey indicated that he sees as a major initial task determining which antidrug programs work and which do not. His instinct, he said, tells him that some programs, such as drug education for children, are vital.

“I start out assuming that that’s almost the No. 1 priority,” McCaffrey said. But Congress funded the program at only half the level requested by the administration, he noted. “Why does it lack credibility?”

He said he plans a “systems approach” for his office, which has been the subject of extensive criticism. He said “you’ve got to grade yourself” on how you meet your goals.

McCaffrey acknowledged that his approach sounds much like the annual report outlining the nation’s drug strategy that he is required to submit to Congress. “We ought to do [our job] more effectively and the best argument in favor of that viewpoint is that we lack adequate credibility with the Congress on the drug strategy. We lack adequate credibility with the international coalition we’ve got to build.”

By law, the strategy report was to be submitted Feb. 1 but government shutdowns prevented many of the 50 responsible agencies from meeting their deadlines for presenting material to the drug control office, a spokesman said.

At the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Tuesday hearing on McCaffrey’s nomination, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the panel chairman, urged McCaffrey to get involved in work on the drug strategy, which now has a target date of March 18. The drug control office spokesman said a decision has not been made on whether the new director will reopen questions on the national strategy with the document in its final stages of production.

McCaffrey made clear in the interview that he would not hesitate to use his authority to review, certify and in some cases readjust budgetary priorities by the agencies that conduct antidrug programs.

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But McCaffrey noted: “A dollar for defense isn’t a dollar that is actually available on a trade-off basis to spend on the Bureau of Prisons. There are different congressional committees. There are different logics that apply.

“So you can’t say, ‘Which would you prefer to do? Sustain an $8,000-an-hour flying program . . . or support drug treatment,’ ” McCaffrey said. “The real question is, what are your priorities? Which programs work?”

He emphasized the long-term nature of the antidrug effort. “We’re literally talking about a 15-year effort. It’s been going on for 10 years already with considerable effectiveness. We’ve got another 15 years to go to manage this to the appropriate place in our society.”