By Kathy Amoroso
January 31, 2005

"Drug prevention and treatment is local," the nation's Drug Czar, John P. Walters, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy at The White House, told the mayor's gathered at the Criminal and Social Justice Committee Meeting at the 73rd Winter Meeting of The United States Conference of Mayors, January 18. "I know that the teen years are critical in drug use interdiction and so we have to prevent the exposure of children to drugs. Drug use in teenagers is down 17 percent. 600,000 fewer teens are using in 2004 than did in 2001. This success is attributable to the prevention message we have tried to strengthen through our media campaign and community collaboration," he noted.

"We are trying to expand treatment," he continued, "and the President got the first $100 million of the $200 million he wants for this. Now the challenge is to get it where it needs to be with the least resistance possible."

On the demand side, Walters said the Administration is focusing on the space between demand and treatment. "We need to intervene by working to bring medical professionals together to treat this as a public health matter by screening for drug use as part of triage. Convening these people in your cities is the key to helping build this screening into hospitals to stop the flow of extremely costly pathology. It's better to work together to make most costly results to families and children the least amount possible."

Walters said the Bush Administration had doubled the number of drug courts nationwide in the last couple of years, and that it was in favor of random student drug testing to refer them to help, rather than punish them. "Testing is about getting to the truth," he said.

In the area of supply reduction, he outlined the use of terrorism prevention resources to focus on pre-inspection of nationwide ports in partnership with local authorities to impact the drug trade. "We have also had a unique cooperation with the Colombian government and cultivation of coca in the Andes has declined," said Walters.

Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz introduced Emmy Award winning reporter Michelle Guillen to discuss the issue of human trafficking. "Mayors are concerned with protecting the vulnerable, the elderly, the sick and children, and these people are among our most vulnerable," he said.

According to Guillen, a 2003 report found that 800,000 to 900,000 people are trafficked every year and she wants to make mayors aware of the problem. Florida, New York and California are the current epicenters of this problem. In Florida, young women are trafficked in from Mexico and Latin America and forced to work in the citrus trade and in brothels. "These people are tricked into coming to this country hoping for a better life," she noted. In California, they are in sweatshops making party dresses. "With the mayor's leadership, we can start to turn the page on this problem," she said. She then showed the mayor's an investigative reporting piece done for Miami television depicting the horrors of this problem.

COPS Office Chief of Staff Tim Quinn closed the session with his remarks. Describing his office's funding opportunities, he outlined $10 million in hiring program resources, with half of that going to school resource officers. "We will have a targeted solicitation for that funding," he said. In addition, the COPS Office has $82 million in interoperable communications funding particular to law enforcement.

Quinn also outlined the COPS Offices resources available to law enforcement personnel to assist them in crime prevention. In particular, he referenced the Gangs Toolkit, a community policing solution to address school violence and gang crime, as well as several problem-oriented guides for police on Crimes Against Tourists, Disorder and Budget Motels, Police Handling of Mentally Ill Persons, and Increase in Street Racing. All of these guides, as well as the Gangs Toolkit, are available free of charge through the COPS Office.