Drug War in New Phase, Martinez Says

WASHINGTON — Bob Martinez, newly appointed director of the nation’s war on drugs, talks--in sharp contrast to his predecessor’s penchant for headline-grabbing--about his mission like the technocrat he used to be as mayor of Tampa and as governor of Florida.

Referring to the Bush Administration’s proposed $11.6-billion budget to continue the drug war next year, Martinez said: “I know that we have now as a nation invested sufficient funds into the initiative that we need to start accounting for progress.”

Two years ago, at about the same point in his tenure, William J. Bennett, the nation’s first director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, declared war on illicit narcotics in the District of Columbia. He vowed to make the drug problem in the nation’s capital a “test case.” But the war on drugs here failed miserably.

“We’re now into evolving from castles-in-the-sky ideas to implementing,” Martinez said. “This requires a lot of contact, a lot of convincing, a lot of listening as well.”