Responding to criticism that the federal government isn’t spending enough money to fight drugs, Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey admitted that he believed President Clinton’s record high $15.1 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 1997 to be “a lean … request.”
“Could more money be used on international and interdiction programs? There is no question,” McCaffrey told a House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. McCaffrey’s remarks were made despite the fact that Clinton’s budget request allocates nearly $10 billion to be used in 1997 solely for law enforcement here and abroad.
“How much is enough,” questioned NORML’s Deputy Director Allen St. Pierre. “Twenty billion, 30 billion, when will it end? Despite claims that this new, anti-drug strategy focuses on youth prevention and education, the Office of National Drug Control Policy will spend a record high $10 billion dollars on law enforcement — a figure that the Drug Czar now claims to be too little.
“Since 1988, federal spending on anti-drug programs has increased more than 300 percent, yet according to government statistics illicit drug use has remained virtually unchanged among adults and has actually increased among adolescents. We cannot continue to keep throwing money at the problem and expect any sort of positive results.”
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.