The Clintonites in fact are worried – so much so, NEWSWEEK has learned, that top officials in the Justice Department last week issued a ““crisis heads-up’’ about new statistics showing yet another increase in teen drug use nationwide. According to a forthcoming federal survey, drug use by 12- to 17-year-olds has jumped 33 percent since 1994 and fully 80 percent since Clinton won the presidency in 1992. ““They’re going to kill us with this,’’ one senior Justice official said. The Republicans are already trying. ““We’re not the party that, as drug use has soared among the young, hears no evil, sees no evil and just cannot say, “Just say no’,’’ Dole said in his acceptance speech last week. Other party leaders echoed the theme. In an interview with NEWSWEEK reporters and editors, former drug czar William Bennett bluntly accused Clinton of bungling the drug war. Bennett, who drafted Bush’s anti-drug strategy during his brief tour as czar, said he wants his old job back if Dole wins the election. ““I’d like to finish that damn job because I feel bad about it,’’ Bennett said. “"[We were] doing well and then they drop the ball and it’s a disaster. Drop that ball and those numbers go zooming up.''
So the war on drugs is back – even if it’s only election-year politics. NEWSWEEK’S post-convention polling (page 18) shows the drug issue ranks third in importance to U.S. voters, behind the economy and crime. The tricky part is that those who say they care most about fighting drugs also say they currently prefer Clinton over Dole, 52 percent to 39 percent. That could change if, as GOP strategists hope, drugs are a ““wedge issue’’ that will help to chip away Clinton’s support. Dole’s handlers say Dole and Jack Kemp are sure to stress the rise in teen drug use and the fact that Clinton drastically cut the budget for the drug czar’s office in 1993-94. But you can expect that someone in the party will sound off if there is any more talk about presidential staffers’ past drug use.
House press spokesman Mike McCurry’s statement that, like Clinton himself, he had smoked pot in the past. But it may also be a veiled threat to capitalize on rumors that during FBI background checks, a number of younger Clinton staffers have admitted using drugs. (White House officials say more than 20 lower-level aides have made such admissions.) Former FBI agent Gary Aldrich described his outrage at the staff’s defiant attitude on drugs in his recent book, ““Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent in the Clinton White House.’’ The book is now at the top of the best-seller lists, and Aldrich got a warm reception in San Diego last week. Asked whether the campaign would use Aldrich’s charges as a campaign issue, a Dole strategist said, ““We don’t need to do that. [Clinton] slashed the drug czar’s budget. Drug use is up. That’s all that people need to know.''
Yes and no. As the Clinton-Gore campaign made haste to explain, drug use is actually down compared with 1985, when cocaine was at its peak. In ballpark terms, the number of Americans who use any illicit drug has dropped from about 22 million in 1985 to about 12 million today, with the number of ““hard core’’ cocaine or heroin users holding steady at about 3 million. The statistics on teen drug use are similarly easy to overstate. Although the statistics say teen drug use jumped 33 percent between 1994 and 1995, only 10.9 percent of all teenagers used any kind of drug in 1994. That means the current total is about 13.3 percent – and while the trend is worrisome, no one should read it as a disaster in the making. It is equally important to note that marijuana remains the overwhelming drug of choice among young people and that cocaine or heroin use is relatively rare.
Still, Clinton’s record on the drug problem is very soft. NEWSWEEK has learned that FBI Director Louis Freeh wrote a scathing memo 18 months ago to complain about the lack of ““any true leadership’’ in stemming the influx of heroin and cocaine, which Freeh compared to an ““all-conquering army.’’ Freeh then hand-delivered the memo to Clinton himself – a bold move. The memo may have hit home. The administration has significantly increased pressure on Colombia, and earlier this year, Clinton quietly restored the budget for the drug czar’s office and appointed retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey to Bennett’s old job.
McCaffrey, who commanded the 24th Mechanized Division during Desert Storm, seems committed to attacking a problem that he says costs America $18 million and 55 deaths every day. He is well aware that many in Washington view his appointment as ““an election-year stunt’’ and candidly admits it will be at least a year until he can give Clinton an overall drug strategy. He worries about rising marijuana use by U.S. teens and the possibility of a new heroin epidemic, and he insists that ““we are not going to arrest our way out of the drug problem.’’ His real goal, he says, is to devise a 10-year strategy for a campaign that is much more like the war on cancer than the war in the Persian Gulf. The implicit message is that Bill Clinton has taken up a cause he plainly disdained in 1992 – and the political question is whether his belated conversion will be credible to the voters as he campaigns for a second term.
