Fighting On Two Fronts

For a change, there was good news from the front lines in the nation's seemingly intractable war on drugs. A new federal survey has found that casual drug use just may be winding down.

According to the 1988 survey on drug abuse commissioned by the Department of Health and Human Services, the number of Americans using illicit drugs at least once a month dropped from 23 million in 1985 to 14.5 million last year. Even more striking, the number of cocaine users has dropped an estimated 50%. "Illicit drug use remains much too high," said DHHS Secretary Louis Sullivan. "But the dramatic declines ((show that)) attitudes are changing."

Still, the report offers little hope that the drug crisis will ease soon. The number of "intensive" (weekly) cocaine users is up a third, to 862,000 people; nearly 300,000 of them may be using cocaine daily. Those estimates could be low, since the pollsters surveyed only households, not transients or people in hospitals and prisons. Said drug czar William Bennett: "We're now fighting two drug wars": a manageable fight against casual users and a more intense battle against crack addiction. "On this second front," he added grimly, "we are not winning."

Bennett's national antidrug strategy, to be announced formally on Sept. 5, will propose federal grants of $200 million to state and local police agencies for reclaiming crack-infested neighborhoods. Federal law-enforcement efforts would focus on the hubs of the drug-importation and -wholesaling industry: Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, Houston and the U.S.-Mexican border.

But Bennett also fervently advocates getting tough on casual users, through punishments from boot camp to community service to the loss of driver's licenses and student loans. "In many ways, the casual user is a more significant carrier of problems than the addict," he says. "That person by example often suggests that you can do drugs and be O.K."

Bennett's plan could cost as much as $1 billion the first year. Where will the money come from? Most congressional drug-war hawks are withholding final judgment on his strategy until they see the bottom line. Last week Bennett would not, or could not, come up with answers.