Mayor Scott King Convenes Northwest Indiana Substance Abuse 2000 Summit
Gary Meeting

By Crystal Swann
April 17, 2000

Gary (IN) Mayor Scott L. King, co-chair of the Conference’s Drug Control Task Force, hosted the first ever Northwest Indiana Substance Abuse 2000 Summit in Gary on March 29. The Genesis Convention Center in downtown Gary overflowed with more than 1000 people from the tri county areas of Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties. A host of speakers included General Barry McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Indiana State Attorney General Karen Freeman-Wilson, Dr. Westley Clark, Director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), as well as experts in the areas of medicine, law enforcement, and education.

The summit was the result of a collaboration between the City of Gary, Partnership for a Drug-Free Lake County, The Methodist Hospitals, Inc., and the Gary Community School Corporation and focused on information sharing and the development of a regional community wide strategy to address substance abuse.

During opening remarks, Mayor King called on his citizens to view substance abuse as a public health concern and a public safety issue. In recanting a story about a recent drug bust he discussed how substance abuse is not a crisis of the unemployed and downtrodden of society but of average working citizens. He stated, “60 percent of those arrested in that operation had good paying jobs in some cases they were literally on their way to work, if we are going to have success in taking on the cancer of substance abuse, the first thing we are going to have to do is start using the pronoun “we” instead of “they.”

Mayor King also stressed that an effective strategy against drug abuse must rely on the “three-legged stool model.” This model refers to the necessary collaboration and coordination needed between law enforcement, prevention and treatment to insure a strategic drug treatment model that was responsive and effective. On the issue of drug treatment he stressed that “state of the art drug treatment should be available on demand to every man, woman, and child who needs it. If we do this then we’ve created a stool upon which we as a region can holistically address an issue that affects each and every one of us.”

Keynote speaker General Barry McCaffrey noted that while the national crime rates in general continue to decline, more than 1.6 million Americans were arrested for drug-law violations in 1998, an increase of one percent from 1997. He also indicated those drug offenders comprise more than half of the country’s prison populations and that many crimes are committed under the influence of drugs or are indirectly related to the drug trafficking industry.

He also stated to a rousing ovation that “there is a disparity in America in access to medical care, drug treatment, and legal assistance. The people who most need drug treatment services are not getting them.” His message was clear education and community involvement are the keys to an effective strategy against drugs.  “There is no community that can escape drug abuse and its consequences,” General McCaffrey concluded.

This summit was the first of three schedule town hall style meeting to be convened in the next few months to continue discussing and developing the Indiana region’s drug strategy.

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