The war on drugs must not be sidetracked by other budget priorities, say national drug policy director William Bennett and top prosecutors from several states.
"We cannot be diverted from this," Bennett said Monday after meeting with members of the National Association of Attorneys General criminal law committee."This should not be viewed as a temporary or six-month or yearlong enthusiasm on the part of the Congress," Bennett said. "They have made the case to their constituents. They've made the case to me at I don't know how many hearings that this is an issue of fundamental national priority."
He said he will fight for the drug war budgets he has submitted "and we will keep their attention on this issue whether they want to keep attention on it or not."
The House Appropriations Committee recently cut $231 million from Bennett's proposed $252 million increase in funding for drug treatment and education. The money was restored on the House floor after Bennett blasted the committee in numerous media interviews.
Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore said he believed it was realistic to expect the drug war to get more money despite the budget crunch.
"I don't think we can afford not to," said Moore, chairman of the attorneys generals' criminal law committee. "We've got kids being shot in schools nowadays. We didn't have that when I was growing up.
"I just had a 13-year-old girl beaten to death over crack cocaine in my hometown in Jackson, Miss. We didn't have that when I was growing up. Yeah, I think it's a priority and I think it's saving lives," Moore said.
Massachusetts Attorney General James M. Shannon added, "This has to be a sustained effort." If budget problems result in inadequate funding, "then all of this talk about a war against drugs for the last year has just been hot air."
Bennett and the prosecutors also urged the country not to forget about the war on drugs as it focuses on hostilities in the Persian Gulf.
"We are here partly to remind you that this effort goes on and that this represents something every bit as important as what is going on anywhere else in the world," Bennett said.
"It is possible for a great nation to take care of its own kids and its own principles in more than one place at one time," he said.
Said Pennsylvania Attorney General Ernest D. Preate Jr.: "We can do two things at once. We can help our boys overseas and we can fight the drug pushers here at home."