Outgoing National Drug Policy Director Barry McCaffrey to Present His Final Report on War on Drugs
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Now we are going to focus on a continuing battle. About three hours from now, outgoing National Drug Policy Director Barry McCaffrey presents his final report on the war on drugs. Eileen O'Connor is at the White House with a preview. Good morning, Eileen.</s>EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, as you say, this is the final report of the nation's drug czar, Barry McCaffrey. And mainly, it boasts of accomplishment: teen drug use down 21 percent in the last two years; overall drug use down 50 percent in the last two decades; and drug crimes are down. There's also some gains in the way of spending on prevention and treatment programs. Spending on prevention is up some 55 percent since 1996, and also spending on prevention is up some 34 percent since 1996. There's also more drug courts. These are courts that are designed to take people who are accused of drug related offenses and get them into treatment and keep them there instead of in jail. Now, that too is up. The number of drug courts in 1994 was only 12, and now there's 700 operating, or about to start operating, in the country. Also, you know, critics, though, are still pointing out that, while there is some increase in spending on prevention and treatment, there's also still increases on the spending on interdiction, and that the spending on interdiction stills outweighs the spending on treatment and prevention 3 to 4 to 1. And they say, even this report says, the benefits of spending money on prevention and treatment is -- the margin of benefit is about 3 to 4 to 1. So, critics say, yes, there has been some gains in those areas, but still more could be done. And, also, the one thing that everyone agrees on, Carol, is that the cost of drug related -- drug and alcohol abuse is staggering to the country. Some $277 billion lost to the country in 1995, which is one the latest statistics -- Carol.</s>LIN: Certainly gets people's attention. Thank you very much, Eileen O'Connor. Of course, today the Drug policy director, Barry McCaffrey, well, he will be likening the war on drugs, well, to battling cancer. You know, he has been very successful at the job that he was appointed to do, but now he is moving on to the private sector. But before he does General McCaffrey is at the White House before releasing his report, and we are going to get a preview from him in just a moment. But, right now, we want to take a look at a different set of numbers just to give you a better idea of what the drug use situation is in the nation; perhaps, an unbiased view. We're going to go to the Gallup Organization, monitoring America's opinion about the war on drugs, and Frank Newport has those results. Hi, Frank.</s>FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Good morning, Carol. Indeed, it's unbiased. This is the American public's perception of what's happened on the drug war, and it's, I would say, cautiously optimistic from Americans and we've updated it. Let's show you, first, just a few months ago, when we actually asked the public: Have we made progress? Have we stood still? Or are we losing ground? And you can see here the plurality, at any rate, 47 percent of Americans say that the country has made progress, 23 percent stood still, and just 29 percent say that we've lost ground. We can put that in context. We haven't asked this question a lot over the years, but we did ask it back in the '70s, and there the public was much more negative, just 33, 27 percent of the public said that we had made progress on the war drugs. It picked up again in the mid-1990s, and then when we just re-asked it that 47 percent that you just saw. That's why I say cautious optimism. The public's getting a little more positive about what we've been doing. Here's a fascinating phenomenon. Are drugs a problem in the country? Well, 83 percent say, yes, it's a serious problem. We'd say in your local community are they a problem. It's just 34 percent. We see that a lot in polling. People perceive it's a big problem nationally. They don't see it locally. This is probably good news. The good news here for those who want to spend more on drugs is that the public recognizes it's a problem nationally, and I think they're willing to spend the money. One specific point on youth: marijuana. Should marijuana be legalized? Well, not a lot of people say yes. We've tracked that over the years. It's up to just 31 percent who say yes. But look at young people. Your 18 to 29-year-old, in this country, almost half, say it should be legalized. Of course, that goes down with age. So there's a big age disparity. But, all in all, Carol, I would say the public is more positive now about what the country's been doing on drugs than they were in the past. Carol, back to you.</s>LIN: All right, thank you very much, Frank. And now let us go to the current drug czar. He is taking a job in the private sector. But before he leaves the administration, he's going to brief us on his battle on the war on drugs. Good morning, General Barry McCaffrey.</s>GEN. BARRY MCCAFFERY (RET.), DRUG POLICY DIRECTOR: Good morning.</s>LIN: Thanks for joining us this morning.</s>MCCAFFREY: Good to be with you.</s>LIN: So, what are you going to be doing next?</s>MCCAFFREY: Well, I'm going to go up and teach at West Point, national security studies with the Department of Social Sciences. It'd be very exciting. Twenty-five January, first class with 18 seniors at West Point.</s>LIN: Well, clearly, you'll have a big influence on them, being as you were the youngest four-star general in the history of the Pentagon. And now that you're leaving this position, what do you think your greatest legacy is going to be?</s>MCCAFFREY: Well, I think Secretary Donna Shalala and Attorney General Janet Reno, and Secretary Dick Riley and I are most pleased about it. We're going to put this out in a report later on this morning at 11:00 that we've gotten the adolescent drug use rate, which essentially tripled among eighth graders in the earlier part of this decade, and then doubled among the overall age population. We've leveled it out, and in the last two years alone, it went down some 21 percent. That's the heart and soul of the drug effort. Fifty-five percent increase in prevention and education funding from bipartisan support in Congress. We've also increased a number of anti-drug community coalitions to over 5,000. Art Dean (ph) over in Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America has been a huge help and a leader in this effort. And then, finally, I think this media campaign, television, radio, the Internet, Jim Burke (ph) and the Partnership for a Drug- Free America. We're starting to shape youth attitudes. Middle school children need to understand the huge risk of drugs like ecstasy, of steroid abuse. We've got to shape their attitudes while they're in middle schools years.</s>LIN: And one of the attempts in shaping their attitudes was a series of very controversial public service announcements. It was a very graphic description of -- and presentation of what drugs do to you. Do you think that has to be reinforced there, in even more graphic terms, to young people? Is that what they're only going to understand?</s>MCCAFFREY: Well, we got six different communication strategies. We've got a huge sophisticated corporation, Ogilvie Mather, and Fleischman-Hillard, two companies that are helping shape a science- based message. We get it out of Dr. Allen Leschner (ph), of the National Institute of Drug Abuse and others, to get through to young people, in terms they understand. If you're going to talk about marijuana abuse, you can't remind kids that they'll die of lung cancer when they're in their 50s. You got to talk about the risk of traffic accidents, of sexual vulnerability. You have got to identify with the target audience that are after. That's why we're out there in 11 different languages around the country.</s>LIN: Well, general, you've also made an argument in your report that education, as you've been saying, as well as treatment, is the best way to fight the use of drugs. Are you likely to -- do you expect that this philosophy is going to continue in a Republican administration, that these treatments and education programs will still get as much funding as they've seen under your watch?</s>MCCAFFREY: Well, I certainly hope so. We're very optimistic about President-elect Bush, and the team he's going to bring into office. We've got to remind ourselves that it was bipartisan support on the Hill that gave us this increase funding. So, you know, Speaker Denny Hastert has been a huge help in shaping this strategy. I think the support is there to understand we've got 5 million chronically addicted Americans. Treatment and substance abuse and mental health care efforts have to be part and partial of dealing with that problem.</s>LIN: Well, General Barry McCaffrey, we wish you luck in your future endeavors in shaping young minds. And we are going to be watching live today when you present your report at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.