PHOENIX A FRONT IN LATEST DRUG WAR

City 1 of 25 Chosen for Feds' New Effort

Phoenix is one of 25 cities nationwide that will partner with the
federal government in its latest battle against drugs.

U.S. drug czar John Walters was in Phoenix on Tuesday to talk up the
White House's new "25-Cities Initiative," which will target those
addicted to illegal drugs as well as focus on preventing children from
starting to use drugs.

Walters said Phoenix was chosen not only because of its size, but
because it is a distribution point for everything from heroin to marijuana.

"Drugs flow through here," Walters said. "This area of the country has
been put at risk because it is a place where drugs come for
distribution to other parts of the country."

The city's participation in the initiative comes as local leaders
appear to be making drug-related problems a greater priority.

Mayor Phil Gordon has stated that he would like to see voluntary drug
testing of Phoenix's schoolchildren, and now, Maricopa County Attorney
Rick Romley has agreed to commit $100,000 in public funds to the
drug-prevention effort.

Tuesday, the two met with Walters, who praised a local school
district's drug-testing policy.

"Drug testing in schools provides truth," said Walters, director of
the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "It allows you to see drug
abuse early, when you can treat it, before it becomes an addiction,
before it leads to other criminal behaviors."

The local program, administered by the Paradise Valley Unified School
District, randomly tests 400 to 500 of the district's high school
athletes each year, at a cost of $20,000.

If a student tests positive, a parent is notified but law enforcement
is not.

"We don't use this as a disciplinary function, we use it as a
preventive measure," said Judi Willis, a public information officer
for the Paradise Valley district.

It is the kind of program that the White House hopes will help reduce
drug use among Americans by 25 percent in five years, a goal of the
Bush administration.

Romley said the district's program so impressed him that he was giving
the district an extra $20,000 to expand it. In addition, he announced
that he plans to give Phoenix officials $100,000 to start other
drug-prevention pilot programs throughout the city.

The seed money is funding tied to the Racketeer Influenced, Corrupt
Organizations Act - money seized during drug busts.

"I can't think of a better way to use a drug dealer's money than to
put it back in the community in a program to keep kids off drugs,"
Romley said.

The pilot programs will likely be created by the mayor's newly
appointed Phoenix Substance Abuse Prevention Commission, which will
work with the federal government on its drug-prevention efforts.

In turn, the federal government, through the "25-Cities Initiative,"
will continue to provide Phoenix with millions in funding as well as
help officials better track the prevalence of drug use in the city.

Other cities in the program include Chicago, New York, Los Angeles,
Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Denver and Portland, Ore.

While the entire range of the new substance-abuse commission's
responsibilities has yet to be determined, it is likely the group will
host local summits to talk about substance abuse, in addition to
bolstering existing programs and devising new ones.

The commission likely will model some initiatives after the Paradise
Valley district's drug-testing program, which seems to be
well-accepted by most parents - and students.

For example, Shaye Harrel, a recent graduate of Horizon High School,
said most of the students she knew didn't mind participating.

"We knew it had to be done to keep things fair," said the 18-year-old
Harrel, who played soccer for four years. "Either you do the test and
you come out clean and you get to play, or you fail the test and you
don't."