DRUG CZAR: SAN DIEGO'S ROLE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

In recent days, the media in San Diego have devoted moving coverage to the
unprovoked shooting of Oceanside police officer Tony Zeppetella - killed
with his own service weapon after making a routine traffic stop. The
officer's wife is left a widow; his infant son is left without a father. The
community is left without a brave officer. The man who murdered him had a
history of drug dealing, and the car he was driving contained heroin, a
scale for weighing quantities of drugs, and packaging materials for drug
selling.

With tragedies like these, San Diegans scarcely need to be reminded of the
consequences drug use imposes on our communities and our families. Such
consequences make a mockery of the claim that drug use is a personal
decision, or that giving money to drug dealers is simply an innocuous
transaction between a willing buyer and a willing seller.

The good news is that San Diego is fighting back. Emergency room admissions
involving heroin, cocaine and meth are all down, as are teen use of
inhalants and cigarettes.

San Diegans also are raising awareness of the drug problem with some of the
nation's most powerful substance abuse prevention and treatment programs.
Organizations like Californians for a Drug-Free Youth have been out in front
for years, warning young people about the dangers of today's high-potency
marijuana, and taking advantage of San Diego's strategic location near the
border to connect groups on both sides and help educate teens about the
dangers of drugs.

Such efforts are especially important given San Diego's recent uptick in the
use of marijuana and cocaine among teens, a worrisome indicator.

Education programs are critical because they stop drug use before it starts
and, in so doing, they reduce the load on the treatment system and,
ultimately, the criminal justice system. But there is also an important role
for San Diego's law enforcement community, since prevention programs work
best in a climate where lawbreaking is punished and young people are
discouraged from trying illegal drugs in the first place.

Treatment programs work best when the people they are trying to help do not
have to navigate streets that are awash in illegal drugs. But even the best
drug treatment program cannot help a drug user who does not seek its
assistance. San Diegans face the challenge of creating a climate in which
drug use is confronted honestly and directly, and where those in need are
encouraged to enter and remain in drug treatment.

It's a challenge your city is facing up to, but in a sense there is no
alternative, since no city can thrive when drugs plague its neighborhoods.
Conversely, when neighborhoods and individuals unite and push back against
this problem, lives are saved and communities prosper.

We need local communities - their elected officials, grass-roots organizers,
faith leaders, parents, teachers and young people - to tackle this problem
and help to deliver change. As with safe schools, pure water and clean air,
communities must insist that our neighborhoods are drug free. Indeed, local
communities - not the federal government - are our most important catalysts
for change.

San Diego's location near the border places the city in a unique position to
reduce both the demand and supply of drugs. This week, your city will host
researchers from around the world at an international technology symposium,
with experts in counter-drug technology presenting the latest in
technologies designed to stop drugs from entering our communities.

I will be participating in that symposium, and plan to spend time listening
to local leaders about how drugs affect San Diego. Together, we must
identify and choose policies that are effective in reducing drug use. We
also must ensure that deaths like those of officer Zeppetella are not
allowed to be in vain.