Nixon on the Offensive

Unlikely as it first seems, President Nixon has turned the nation's drug problem into what he calls a major foreign policy concern. During a recent jaunt through Europe and North Africa, Presidential Counsellors Robert Finch and Donald Rumsfeld met with leaders in eleven lands to underscore Nixon's concern over illicit international traffic in narcotics. Last week at his press conference, in answer to a plainly planted question, the President called for a "national offensive" to fight addiction among American youth--with special emphasis on veterans who return from Viet Nam hooked on heroin. The Administration is also drafting legislation that will assemble in one organization the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation elements of drug control.

What appears to be in the works is a new federal program, initially costing an estimated $100 million, that will coordinate and expand the efforts of existing agencies. The Treasury Department's law enforcement operations, primarily against smuggling, and the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs would continue, but with increased funds. The treatment, rehabilitation and education programs would be centered in a new office, probably in HEW. Its director would have wide powers to draw on existing resources at HEW and the National Institutes of Health, and would report directly to the President.

Political Fallout. The catalyst for the President's program has been drug abuse among both Viet Nam veterans and G.I.s in the field. Within the Administration, the private reports on the drug problem in Viet Nam have become increasingly dire over the past two years. There has been a steady flow of White House and Administration officials to Viet Nam, and all have come back depressed by the narcotics crisis.

The President is obviously deeply concerned at the destruction of human lives by drugs, particularly among the young; the White House estimates that 50% of U.S. addicts are under 21. Nixon is also keeping an eye on the drug issue's political potential. The fallout from drug abuse in Viet Nam could continue to focus attention on the American presence there and make the war an issue even after troop levels are down to 40,000 or 50,000 next year.

Then, too, there is growing concern as drugs creep into Nixon's natural middle-class white constituency. Reston, Va., for example, the planned community once heralded as an American dream suburb, has a drug problem. Two weeks ago, a 14-year-old runaway from the community, Carolyn Ford, died from a heroin overdose. In the same week, a 17-year-old Santa Barbara, Calif., youth stabbed himself to death rather than surrender to narcotics officers; he was among 41 people being rounded up in raids following a four-month narcotics investigation.

One recent tragedy also serves to illustrate the insidious spread of addiction. Early one morning last week a 16-year-old girl and a 22-year-old man were found dead on the steps of a Queens, N.Y., hospital, both from narcotics overdoses. Police discovered that the girl's older brother had died of a heroin overdose several weeks before, and that another brother had narrowly escaped a similar fate at the same time.

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