The Nation - News from June 3, 1988

The House panel that finances most of the nation’s war on drugs unveiled a bill that would establish a drug coordinator under the President with a budget of $2.6 billion to allocate among the approximately 30 agencies that deal with illegal drugs. Under the flexible approach by the Appropriations subcommittee on commerce, justice, state and the judiciary, the coordinator would have no deadline for spending the money and that would be his only job. Previous bills have called for a “drug czar” with authority to coordinate strategy among different agencies.