Presidents bedeviled by seemingly intractable problems tend to resort to symbolic gestures. As he wondered how to pay for the Great Society and the Viet Nam War all at once, Lyndon Johnson roamed the White House halls turning off lights to save electricity. In the depths of the energy crisis, Jimmy Carter turned down the thermostat in the Oval Office and put on a sweater. So, as the national furor over the drug crisis continues to grow, it was not altogether startling to hear Ronald Reagan offer to take a urine test to determine if he has consumed any narcotics lately — and to ask his entire Cabinet to follow suit. Declaring a “national mobilization” on narcotics abuse, the President set forth a program last week that was long on exhortation and good intentions but a bit short on specifics and cash. Indeed, about the only concrete step he announced at a briefing for White House reporters was a call for mandatory drug testing for certain key federal workers, and even then the President did not spell out which ones. Over the weekend, Reagan “led the way” by taking his test before undergoing what proved to be a routine urological examination. It was not the sort of event that provided the press corps with a photo opportunity, but it served to underscore just how serious the President is about tackling the nation’s drug epidemic. He can hardly afford to be less than serious. The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that up to 5 million Americans regularly use cocaine and that annual cocaine-related deaths have tripled since 1982, from 202 to more than 600 in 1985.White House polls show that the public is more worried about drugs than about such matters as the federal budget deficit and arms control. Congressmen, particularly Democrats trying to find an election issue for this fall, are tripping all over one another to introduce free-spending antidrug legislation. The President’s wife has long been in the forefront of the drug war with a “Just Say No” campaign that she has doggedly propagated to the nation’s youth. Yet for reasons philosophical and fiscal, the President is not rushing to throw federal dollars at the drug crisis. He does not want to inflate the federal deficit, which could reach a record $230 billion this year, by creating new and costly Government programs. Reagan would prefer that many of the solutions — and most of the funding — come from state and local officials and the private sector. Thus the crusade called for by the President last week was, as he admitted, less a program than a set of goals. Promising “more to come,” he offered a six-point plan: A drug-free workplace for all Americans. Reagan wants the Federal Government to serve as an example. Though he stopped short of calling for across-the- board drug screening for all federal employees, as some of his aides have urged, the President proposed mandatory urinalysis for federal workers in “sensitive” jobs. White House aides later explained that this meant workers charged with public safety, like air-traffic controllers and national- security and law-enforcement officials. The President’s Cabinet has dutifully agreed to undergo drug tests if asked, as have most White House staffers.
