Crack Down

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Congress seems less constrained by fiscal realities. "President Reagan is trying to fight a bear with a flyswatter," insists House Majority Leader Jim Wright. House Speaker Tip O'Neill has called on Hill leaders to bring an omnibus antidrug bill to the floor for a vote by Sept. 10. The price tag of some new proposals, above and beyond current funding, is estimated at up to $2 billion. The Democratic-controlled House voted 302 to 118 last week to give the President more troops in his border war on drugs than he has asked for. The House wants to spend an additional $100 million to pay for 1,547 customs agents, an item the Administration had sought to eliminate in next year's budget, and hire 850 new ones in areas beset by drug smuggling, such as Texas and Florida.

Hill Democrats hope to reap some political rewards by outdoing the Reagan Administration in their zeal to conquer drugs. But White House aides profess not to be worried. "The President has a lot of credibility on this issue because of what Nancy's been doing," said one Reaganaut. Asked by reporters last week if he planned to upstage his wife's efforts, Reagan snorted, "Do I look like an idiot?"

The President's plea for help at the grass roots has not gone unheeded. All around the country last week local officials moved against the drug epidemic. In Los Angeles, officials announced that they will put $500,000 into drug education in elementary schools. To protest the spread of crack in New York City, where drug-treatment facilities are filled to more than 110% of capacity, John Cardinal O'Connor led a candlelight vigil on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

The President emphasized last week that his objective is to launch not "another short-term offensive" but a "sustained national effort to rid America of this scourge by mobilizing every segment of our society against drug abuse." His program may still be vague, but it recognizes the essential point: more border patrols and longer jail sentences are not enough; the U.S. must attack not only the supply side of the drug equation but the demand as well. That will require a fundamental change in the national climate, a growing intolerance of drug use not just by school administrators but by students, not just by law-enforcement authorities but by friends and families. "Unless you change attitudes," said Senior White House Aide Dennis Thomas last week, "I don't care how many billions you spend. You won't do a damn thing."