McCaffrey’s Record
* The Times’ Oct. 22 editorial criticizing Director Barry McCaffrey omitted his record of real results: Between 1997 and 1999, 12- to 17-year-olds’ drug use fell 21%. The number of drug-related murders dropped to the lowest point in over a decade. Workplace drug use has fallen to an 11-year low. Our source zone efforts cut production in Peru and Bolivia by 61% and 70% since 1995, and Andean coca cultivation is down nearly 20% overall.
He made prevention a top priority. The $1-billion, five-year youth anti-drug media campaign is having a positive impact. Funding for drug treatment has expanded by 34% since 1994. The number of drug courts (which offer court-supervised drug treatment programs) has grown from a dozen in 1994 to almost 700 now in place or coming on line. The number of federal inmates receiving substance abuse treatment increased from 1,135 in 1992 to 10,816 in 1999.
The Times called for increased power for the drug policy director. With McCaffrey’s guidance, Congress rewrote the law in 1998 and gave the drug policy director significantly expanded budget and certification authority.
ROBERT S. WEINER, Chief of
Press Relations, Office of National
Drug Control Policy, Washington
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