BUREAUCRACY WATCH : A Czar Abdicates

The resignation of drug czar William J. Bennett provides President Bush with an opportunity to direct the nation’s drug policy a little more toward treatment and less toward law enforcement.

Bennett, acknowledged even by his critics as a master of the bully pulpit, championed the philosophy of punishing--harsher sentences, more jails and a kick in the pants for drug abusers. That approach is reflected in federal anti-drug funding: 70% for interdiction and law enforcement, only 30% for education and treatment.

Bush is not likely to appoint a drug czar who favors an equal split (too bad), but he should choose someone less likely to send in the cavalry. Maybe that someone should be Reggie B. Walton, Bennett’s assistant.

Yes, this former prosecutor is keen on law enforcement, as anyone would be who has witnessed up close the sickening carnage from all the drug-related violence. But Walton is a former criminal judge as well, and balances his knowledge of law enforcement with pragmatism and compassion.

Although he’s not sold on treatment on demand (he questions the quality and capacity of current overtaxed programs), Walton more than Bennett is sold on the general need for drug treatment.

The departing Bennett claims a measure of credit for the decline of casual use among middle-class Americans and high school seniors. Not so fast, Bill. Studies had detected those trends before you came to the Office of National Drug Control Strategy. Since then the use of crack--and its attendant social problems--has soared.