Drugs: High on Compromise

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Nobody is for drugs. Which is one reason why Democrats and Republicans were so eager to pass an antidrug bill before returning home to re-election campaigns. So what is the problem? It seems that the House Republicans wanted a bill with a provision mandating the death penalty for drug-related homicides, but Senate Democrats threatened to filibuster the measure.

Thanks to several hours of deft negotiations last week, Democrats and Republicans had it both ways. After two months of wrangling over the $1.7 billion antidrug measure, leaders utilized a little-known procedure that allowed the House to approve the bill with the death penalty intact and then send it back to the Senate, where members stripped the provision from the bill. "I don't think anyone's really proud of it," said Representative Patricia Schroeder, a Colorado Democrat. "But I don't think they could think of another way to get it out of here."