Overview

For its first eight months in office, the Clinton Administration's approach to the drug issue could best be described as benign neglect. Then, in September 1993, the Administration announced a new approach to drug policy, promising to "reinvent our drug control programs" and "move beyond ideological debates." The new Administration policy de-emphasized law enforcement and shifted away from interdiction, while promising dividends from treating hard-core drug users.(NOTE 1)

Almost three years into the Administration, however, the results of its early neglect, and subsequent policy "reinvention," are in. Drug use is up-dramatically so among young people. Promised reductions in hardcore use-the centerpiece of the Administration strategy-have failed to materialize. New money to expand the nation's treatment system has coincided with a projected decrease in treatment "slots."(NOTE 2)

Law enforcement efforts, meanwhile, are not keeping pace with the kingpins who run the drug trade, whose resources and technical sophistication are increasing yearly. Prosecutorial efforts appear to have stumbled as well, with a 12 percent decline in prosecutions over just two years.

Presidentially ordered interdiction cuts appear to have resulted in an increased supply of drugs on American streets. Illicit drugs are now available in greater quantities, at higher purity, and at lower prices than ever before. The Administration's strategy for coping with these problems is predicated on a series of goals that one drug policy expert described as "merely an unprioritized list [that does little] to direct policy." (NOTE 3

Viewed together, these factors paint a disturbing picture of inatten-tion to a serious and growing national threat.