Clinton Plan Aims to Halve Drug Problem by 2007

Hammering home the need for a strategy that measures success and failure, the Clinton administration is announcing a five-part plan designed to cut the size of the nation’s drug problem in half by 2007.

In a three-volume report to Congress, White House drug policy director Barry R. McCaffrey said drugs cost the country more than 14,000 lives annually, despite a nationwide effort that includes close to $18 billion spent this year by the federal government.

President Clinton said that, although “there is some encouraging progress in the struggle against drugs, . . . the social costs of drug use continue to climb.”

In a message to Congress, Clinton said the positive signs include a growing view among young people that drugs are risky and a continuing decline in cocaine production abroad.

“Studies demonstrate that when our children understand the dangers of drugs, their rates of drug use drop,” Clinton said.

The five parts of the administration plan are educating children, decreasing the addicted population, breaking the cycle of drugs and crime, securing the nation’s borders from drugs, and reducing the supply of drugs.

The blend of strategies is aimed at reducing the use and availability of drugs by 50% by 2007, with 25% by 2002. Achieving the goal would mean just 3% of the U.S. household population ages 12 and over would be using illegal drugs. The current figure is 6.4%. In 1979, the rate was near 15%.

Vice President Al Gore said: “This strategy takes us into the next century with a goal of dramatic reductions in the supply and demand for drugs and a real chance of giving our children drug-free communities in which to grow up.”

With Clinton attending the funeral of Jordan’s King Hussein, formal presentation of the plan today was being handled by Gore and McCaffrey. Advance copies were made available Sunday.

A major piece of the drug-control effort: an advertising campaign that generates more than $195 million a year in matching contributions from media companies.

Another major feature of the strategy is accountability for the wide array of current anti-drug programs, with boosts for those that work and the ability to identify swiftly and repair those that don’t.