CRITIC OF U.S. DRUG POLICY EXPECTS SPARKS AT CONFERENCE.

Byline: Catalina Ortiz Associated Press 

Should arrests and prisons be weapons in America's fight against drugs?

Some experts, including law enforcement officers, don't think so. Others believe that vigorously prosecuting drug offenders is vital.

More than 100 police officers, scientists, public officials and academics representing differing viewpoints gathered at the Hoover Institution on Thursday to discuss how to best combat drug abuse.

``I would say the sparks are going to fly. This is such an emotional and controversial issue,'' said Joseph McNamara, a former big-city police chief who is now a scholar at the conservative think tank at Stanford University.

Former Secretary of State George Shultz, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese III and Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks are among the participants in the two-day conference, which McNamara has spent the last year organizing.

McNamara, a strong critic of U.S. drug policy, said that the number and prominence of participants shows that the war on drugs, with its law-enforcement emphasis, isn't working - and doesn't have local support.

Current policies, he says, encourage corruption of foreign officials and U.S. law enforcement officers and lead to violence on American streets. He also contends the drug war strains local police resources and unfairly affects nonwhites.

He calls for an end to arresting drug users - most of whom, he argues, aren't addicts and don't commit other crimes - and a greater emphasis on prevention.

But others believe law enforcement is one of several essential parts of the larger anti-drug battle, along with treatment and prevention, especially education of young people.

``Education and prevention cannot work without the incentive of law enforcement,'' said Bob Weiner, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The agency's director, former Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was invited but was unable to attend the conference. While Weiner declined to comment directly on the conference, he said critics who focus on international and law enforcement efforts are ignoring the other fronts where the government is fighting drug abuse.

``A lot of the criticism comes from people who haven't read the policy,'' he said.

Meanwhile, some members of Congress have criticized the Clinton administration for not being vigorous enough combating illicit drugs.

``This is a think tank, and we want people to think about this issue,'' McNamara said. ``Meeting people in other fields and considering other aspects . . . we think is very helpful.''