CAMPAIGN ’88 : Jackson Gives Details of Anti-Drug Program

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, seeking to counter criticism that his presidential campaign emphasizes style rather than substance, on Thursday released details of an anti-drug program that would boost federal funding 72% above Reagan Administration levels.

A campaign policy statement said the increase, from $3.9 billion to $6.7 billion, would pay for expansions of drug interdiction, law enforcement and drug abuse prevention and treatment programs.

Jackson, a longtime crusader against drug abuse, has broadened that message during his presidential campaign, denouncing drugs as “the number one threat to our national security� and warning that the United States is “militarily inferior� to “drug lords and drug smugglers.�

But his speeches have been short on detail, prompting questions about how he would pay for his proposed “war on drugs� and other programs. Campaign aides said the anti-drug budget, distributed to reporters during a Jackson appearance at a high school in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Ill., was the first step in an effort to answer those criticisms.

The largest single increase Jackson proposed--from $425 million to $1.7 billion--would provide for treatment on demand for drug abusers.

In a news conference focusing on his drug initiative, however, Jackson said he did not know how a $300-million increase he called for in the Coast Guard budget would be spent. Those details, he said, would be worked out later.