DRUG OFFICIAL, EX-USER AGREE ON TREATMENT

The nation's "drug czar" and a former addicted prostitute think alike.

There are millions of people in the United States successfully recovering
from drug addictions who have valuable experience to pass onto others, but
they need their communities' support, said John Walters, director of the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Leslie Baker, a recovering addict who prostituted herself for drugs, agrees
with Walters' approach and is ready to help.

Walters visited Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday to promote drug prevention
and treatment centers, special courts for drug offenses, and community
involvement.

"Some people think of treatment as a washing machine," Walters said
Tuesday. "You start out dirty and you go and get clean and it's all done
but . . . this is really a community effort. You have to be willing to help
people get their lives back."

Baker, 54, is a graduate of the Fulton County Drug Court Program, one of
many drug courts around the country and an initiative that Walters
supports. Baker said her addiction became so strong that she "traded her
body for drugs."

Today, two years after shaking her addiction, Baker candidly talks about
her experiences with the hope of motivating young people to avoid her
mistakes. She'd like to do more of that, with the help of Walters' office.

"I want him to have people like myself go and talk to young kids and have
some counselors in schools that kids can talk to in private . . . to share
their problems with, because there are so many problems and secrets those
kids are carrying. I would like to be the one to do it," she said.

According to the Administrative Office of the Courts, drug courts like the
one that helped Baker are intended to change offender behavior through a
team approach that involves judges, district attorneys, public defenders,
caseworkers, probation officers and treatment providers.

Touring the Vine City and Washington Park neighborhoods of Atlanta near the
Georgia Dome on Monday night, Walters used the drug activity he found there
as evidence of the need for community involvement.

"I was in neighborhoods last night that were incredibly ravaged, but in
that visit I saw blocks of those neighborhoods that had been taken back by
a combination of public safety efforts and community coalition efforts," he
said.

"It is not true that we have to be cynical or we have to be victims or we
have to tread water."

Walters plans a 26-city tour later this year to survey the crime and
poverty that accompany drugs, and find ways to emphasize prevention and
treatment.