
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 8, 1990                   TAG: 9005080655
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: TRACY VAN MOORLEHEM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OLIN QUESTIONS U.S. SPENDING IN WAR ON DRUGS

Rep. Jim Olin questioned federal spending priorities in the drug war at a conference he sponsored Monday.

Olin, D-Roanoke, told a group of leaders from the 6th Congressional District that although the federal government has spent $23 billion in the past decade fighting the drug war, he has not "found much evidence of national money filtering down to the local level."

The total amount of drugs coming into the United States continues to increase, Olin said, although money spent on the drug war has prevented a 3 percent to 12 percent increase.

Olin said that between 1981 and 1989 the federal government spent more than twice as much trying to stop the flow of drugs into the United States as it did in drug prevention and education programs.

"We're not making much headway trying to stop them from coming into the country, so that leads me to wonder about our priorities," Olin said.

The expenditures included $7.5 billion to stop the influx of illegal drugs and $3 billion to educate citizens about the danger of drug use. Less than $1 billion was appropriated for state and local assistance, Olin said.

Gov. Douglas Wilder's anti-drug coordinator, Robert Northern, also spoke to the group of about 100 educators, parents, clergy and professionals. He told them Virginia has received $2 million of federal grant money that local schools and groups can apply to for finance drug education programs.

"It's hard to believe that anyone on a day like today would want to use drugs," said Northern, but illegal drug use and alcohol abuse has reached "every nook and cranny of the state."

During the 1988-90 biennium, which ends June 30, Virginia will have spent $100 million on its own drug war, Northern said. According to national and state surveys, Virginia appears to have made some progress.

In 1989, 60 percent of high school seniors surveyed admitted using alcohol, for instance, down from 72 percent in a 1980 survey.

Olin said he wouldn't say the state is on its way to beating the problem yet.

by CNB