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US Report Details Losses In Drug Fight John Donnelly Boston Globe (US) Thursday 04 Jan 2001 Pubdate: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Author: John Donnelly US REPORT DETAILS LOSSES IN DRUG FIGHT But McCaffrey Sees Some Positive Signs Despite the commitment of record amounts of money to fight drug abuse, the number of drug-related episodes in emergency rooms is at historic highs and drug use among youths remains significantly higher than when President Clinton entered office, according to figures in a national report on drug policy to be released today. The sobering news comes in the final report on drugs by the Clinton administration, which shifted the country's philosophy and funding on drug abuse with the appointment of Barry R. McCaffrey as drug czar in 1996. The administration increased spending almost 50 percent since then: to $19.2 billion this year from $13.4 billion in 1996, an average increase of more than $1 billion a year. But McCaffrey will argue today at a news conference that the drug problem among youths, in particular, is getting better. To support his position, he will cite a 21 percent decrease in use from 1997-99, perhaps the first signs from a widely praised antidrug media campaign. Still, drug use among those age 12-17 was the same in 1999 as in 1996, when McCaffrey became director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In both years, 9 percent of those youths surveyed acknowledged using illegal drugs in the previous month, according to the survey, a copy of which was obtained by the Globe. In 1993, when Clinton first took office, only 5.7 percent of youths said they used illegal drugs. "We've got a long ways to go," said Joseph A. Califano Jr., president of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University and former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. For the first time during McCaffrey's nearly five years in office, the report includes closing the gap in treatment as one of five national drug stategy goals. In 1998 - the last year for which figures are available - 57 percent of America's addicts did not get treatment. Winning political support for treatment of hard-core users has always been a difficult fight in Washington and in most state capitals. McCaffrey's predecessor, Lee Brown, attempted to dramatically raise funding to treat long-term drug abusers but was resoundingly defeated, receiving no new funds for chronic users in 1994. The report is being issued amid questions over how President-elect George W. Bush will address drug policy. In recent months, the issue has all but disappeared from the national agenda. McCaffrey's job remains unfilled - the lone Cabinet-level seat still vacant. During the campaign, Bush said little about drug policy, but he did support the Clinton administration's $1.6 billion Colombia drug-fighting package. As governor, he favored tougher laws for drug offenders. But Bush will hear more about the debate over Colombia, and more broadly over whether it is wiser to focus on cutting the supply of drugs or the demand from users. Only one president has ever directed the majority of funds toward treatment: Richard M. Nixon. The numbers in the 2001 drug report suggest that even with a 34 percent increase in treatment funding in the last five years, the programs fall far short of helping those who are toughest to rehabilitate and most costly to society. In 1993, the report estimated 3.3 million hard-core cocaine users and 694,000 heroin addicts. The 1998 figures: 3.3 million cocaine addicts and 980,000 heroin addicts. In Clinton's first year, the drug abuse warning network recorded 460,910 drug-related conditions in emergency rooms. In 1999, the number increased to 554,932, the highest ever. "The percentage of those untreated remains to me one of the most telling figures in the wealth of statistics the drug control office puts out,'' said Michael Massing, author of "The Fix," a history of America's fight against drug abuse. "It's a continuing indictment of the policy that Clinton and McCaffrey have pursued." McCaffrey, a former Army four-star general, leaves as drug czar later this month. He said in a talk last month at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, that one of his top priorities has been to lower drug use among youths through a $2 billion advertising campaign. "Now we believe we have leveled out the rate of use," he said then. "If you look at a 10-year snapshot, we are moving in the right direction." Even critics acknowledge McCaffrey's foresight in starting the antidrug media campaign and note that it might take several years for statistics to fully reflect the effects on youth attitudes. McCaffrey himself will depart office unsatisfied on several fronts, including the lack of change in the numbers of hard-core addicts. "We have 5 million people chronically addicted to drugs," he said last month. "They are a total mess. They are in misery. ... Their personal behavior is disgusting, so it's hard to organize rational drug policy around them." Califano suggested sharply increasing funding for treatment programs in prisons. He cited studies that showed 1.6 million of the 2 million inmates in local and state jails had committed alcohol-or drug-related crimes. Of that 1.6 million, about 200,000 were drug dealers, not users. And of the remaining 1.4 million, only 109,130 inmates received treatment in 1998, according to the national drug report. Still, that represents nearly double the number treated in 1997. "We have this captive population and you have to give them drug and alcohol treatment and give them proper job training or they will commit more crimes when they get out of jail," he said. But in his final report, McCaffrey keeps his focus on the positive. "As a new White House takes up the challenges we face," he wrote, "the time has come to appreciate our successes and commit ourselves as a people to a freer America where fewer victims of drug abuse waste their health and their lives behind bars."
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