DECLARING ILLEGAL DRUGS ENEMY NUMBER ONE

The U.S. Conference of Mayors' national action plan to reduce drug use in cities says that equal emphasis must be attached to supply and demand reduction efforts. The mayors, with their associated police chiefs and prosecutors, presented to President Clinton on May 21 a report emphasizing an urgent need to counter the spread of methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug than can trigger violent behavior. The mayors also say that illegal drugs should be declared one of America's major foreign policy concerns.

The Conference of Mayors is an official nonpartisan organization representing mayors from over 1,000 U.S. cities with populations of 30,000 or more. The conference has assumed a national leadership position in calling for early attention to serious urban problems and pressing for solutions. Its official policy positions are presented to the president and both Houses of Congress.

A National Action Plan To Control Drugs

If illegal drugs are to be controlled in this nation, equal importance must be attached to supply reduction and demand reduction efforts. The current level of drug enforcement must be maintained and demand reduction activities must be increased. Prevention, education, treatment sanctions for drug use, and drug testing -- all should be viewed as parts of an effective demand reduction strategy.

1. Reaching America's young people and convincing them not to use drugs must be our first priority.

• Parents must be engaged in this effort. They must be helped to understand their responsibility to provide support and guidance that will discourage the use of drugs or alcohol by their children. Parents should also understand that they can be held legally responsible for the actions of their children.

• Children whose parents are not present or are unable to meet their responsibilities pose a special challenge that must be met by other family members or others in the community.

• Children whose parents have developed their own substance abuse problems or are tolerant of drug use in their homes fail in their responsibilities as parents and undermine the efforts of all others in the community to reach children with effective anti-drug messages.

• Businesses should be encouraged to have "family friendly" policies that help, not hinder, the process of child rearing. Examples are the provision of child care on the work site and flexible leave policies.

• Appropriate role models must be employed at both local and national levels to help reach and motivate young people with clear, emphatic drug-free and violence-free messages. Entertainers and sports figures willing to speak out against drugs and violence to counter the pro-drug messages that continue to be carried by the entertainment industry must be more actively recruited. A partnership with the media should be formed in order to eliminate the "glamorization" of the portrayal of drug use and violence.

• An advertising campaign that shows actual victims, not generalized models of victims, would increase the public's understanding of, and sensitivity to, the consequences of drug abuse. The (Clinton) administration's proposed media campaign designed to help America's youth reject illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco should be supported.

• School systems should recognize and stop drug use, drug sales, and violence in and around schools. It is critical that students recognize that their schools do not look the other way and that they do not tolerate drugs. A partnership among schools, the community, and law enforcement should be formed to create drug-free and violence-free schools in which learning is not impeded. Drug and violence prevention campaigns should be incorporated into the curricula of every school. Because of the time young people spend in them, schools provide a valuable vehicle for reaching young people with anti-drug messages.

• If young people are expected to reject drugs, a range of positive options, such as recreational and employment opportunities, must be available to them

2. Drug abuse will not be reduced in this country without adequate treatment resources.

• Treatment works and represents a good investment. The 1996 National Treatment Improvement Evaluation study found that treatment reduces drug use. Clients reported reducing drug use by 50 percent in the year following treatment. The study found all types of treatment can be effective, criminal activity declines after treatment, health improves after treatment, and treatment improves well-being. The Conference has long held that treatment should be expanded so that a continuum of services such as detoxification, stabilization, and after-care that includes job training and education is available on demand to all in need and seeking help. Demand reduction, including prevention and treatment, must be responsive to the emerging trends in drug use patterns and trends. It should also be recognized that when drugs are taken out of someone's life, positive alternative activities must be substituted.

• Cost-effective treatment must become more readily available, especially for uninsured people who are not in the criminal justice system. For those with insurance, policies should cover substance abuse treatment just as they cover other forms of medical treatment, and managed care plans should not decrease coverage of substance abuse treatment. Medicaid reimbursement for drug treatment should be expanded by allowing states the option of (a) covering treatment
• including services in hospitals, outpatient clinics, residential facilities, and any other drug treatment facility licensed by the state; and (b) providing drug treatment to financially eligible single individuals as well as pregnant women and families. Modeled after the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, targeted funding should be made available to areas in which there are significant rates of drug addiction and a corresponding insufficiency of treatment programs and facilities.

• While authorities should take full advantage of the fact that the threat of incarceration can motivate an individual to enter into and successfully complete a treatment program, the goal should be to get people into treatment before they are faced with such a threat, and certainly before they come into actual contact with the criminal justice system

• Authorities should recognize that every contact with the juvenile or criminal justice system is an opportunity to identify substance abusers and to intervene in the form of drug testing and treatment.

• Additional drug courts should be established with funding provided for the necessary continuum of treatment services. Needed are workable, accountable, sufficiently funded treatment programs and immediate consequences for those who fail to remain drug free.

• For young people especially, incarceration should focus on rehabilitation, and the availability of drug treatment is essential to this.

• Research into effective methods of treatment should be increased, with particular attention to models for cocaine and methamphetamine addiction.

• The number of federal agencies involved in drug enforcement and the lack of a protocol for communication among them, as well as between them and local enforcement agencies, is clearly a problem. Cooperation and coordination among the various federal enforcement agencies must improve significantly. There should be improved sharing of intelligence, new technologies, and technical assistance among federal enforcement agencies and between federal enforcement agencies and local police departments.

• Federal-state-local partnerships must continue and expand. A nationwide data system providing all police agencies access to information on gang membership and narcotics traffickers should be instituted. To address the drug problem more aggressively, state and local authorities should be empowered to invoke federal statutes as part of their own enforcement strategies.

• The Internal Revenue Service and other law enforcement agencies should further enhance the use of the tax laws as part of a national anti-drug strategy and should prosecute drug dealers under them.

• Federal prosecutors should target more aggressively the international traffickers and those who reap the profits and launder the money from the drug trade.

• Federal authorities should assume more responsibility for prosecuting major drug offenses and federal courts should take many more major drug cases. Where needed, separate federal drug courts should be established.

• Penalties should be stiffened based on the level of involvement of the individual in drug trafficking and the seriousness of the crime committed. There should be severe and definitive punishment of higher level dealers.

• Federal money-laundering statutes should be strengthened and more aggressively enforced. To deter money laundering, the Customs Service should increase the monitoring of goods and cash leaving the country.

• Funding for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) should be increased, and the administration should improve its coordination with local police departments. DEA should provide local police departments with information concerning seizures and arrests when such activities are planned for their jurisdictions.

• The Immigration and Naturalization Service should continue to expand its efforts to apprehend and deport illegal aliens involved in drug trafficking in non-border areas.

• Methamphetamine is being manufactured in Mexico and the United States using ingredients that are readily available. The facts that methamphetamine is easy to distribute, inexpensive to produce and purchase, is highly addictive, and can trigger violent behavior among users underscore the urgent need to combat this problem.

• There is an immediate need for a national effort to make government and law enforcement officials at all levels, the general public, and young people in particular aware of the threat of methamphetamine. Police, emergency medical staff, and domestic violence counselors should be educated about the dangers methamphetamine presents.

• The administration's initiatives to combat the spread of methamphetamine should be supported.

• Existing laws governing the distribution and regulation of precursor chemicals should be examined and strengthened where possible.

• Enforcement operations targeting methamphetamine traffickers should be supported. Federal, state, and local agencies should work together to coordinate joint methamphetamine operations and training.

• Scientific research should be conducted to understand the behavior patterns of methamphetamine users and to address public safety and environmental issues connected with the manufacture of the drug.

• Employers in both the public and private sectors should assure that their workplaces are drug free.

• Employers should make employee assistance programs, including drug treatment, available to workers who voluntarily acknowledge a drug problem and request help.

• The Office of National Drug Control Policy should be reauthorized with the role of the director significantly strengthened. The director should have clear authority over the anti-drug activities of the more than 50 federal agencies involved in drug control, and those agencies must improve coordination of their efforts. The visibility of the Office should be increased and the number of staff expanded to the extent necessary for it to fulfill its mission.

• The federal funding sources for state and local anti-drug programs should be restructured to make them more responsive to local needs and provide at least a portion of the funds directly to local governments. The federal COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) program serves as a model for getting funds directly to the level of government responsible for the activity
• to where the need is greatest. Further, all funds provided to local agencies must be directed to the appropriate local government official, the official who must be aware of and responsive to needs throughout the community. The results of the omnibus anti-drug legislation enacted into law 10 years ago have been mixed at best. The impact of these federal programs on cities is not clear, since the funds go to the states as block grants and are used primarily at the discretion of the governor and other state officials.

• Foreign countries should be certified based upon their cooperation with United States counter-narcotics efforts and, where appropriate, foreign aid should be denied to source countries that fail to cooperate satisfactorily.

• Foreign governments should be encouraged to strengthen and more aggressively enforce their laws and policies to reduce money laundering and other financial crimes.

• The interdiction and anti-smuggling efforts of federal agencies should be strengthened to further defend our land, sea, and air borders against penetration by narcotics traffickers.

Global Issues
USIA Electronic Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, June 1997