DRUG POLICY OFFICIAL GETS LIFT FROM KIDS, BOOSTS LOCAL EFFORTS

He hears some disturbing figures, but says drug abuse a 'preventable
behavior'

Dr. Donald Vereen Jr. clasped his hands together Thursday and asked
the elementary and middle school kids, "Will you support me?"

He was then hoisted in the air, swayed back and forth and gently
placed on his feet as part of a "trust fall."

"That was cool," said Vereen, a senior staff member in the federal
office that forms national drug policy.

He visited Tacoma on Thursday to see a local Safe Streets Campaign
program that teaches youngsters to depend on each other in avoiding
the pressures of drugs and gangs.

He also came to hear city leaders evaluate the national drug control
policy and tell him about local efforts to stop drug use.

What Vereen heard was that methamphetamine use in Washington state is
at a crisis level. "And the state isn't aware of it," he said.

Vereen, who works under Barry McCaffrey as the Office of National Drug
Control Policy's deputy director, was told the state's news media have
virtually ignored the issue.

In addition, city leaders told him funding hasn't been available for
community awareness campaigns on methamphetamine use and production.

The number of meth labs in the state are doubling each year, said
Roger Lake, president of the Washington State Narcotics Investigators
Association.

Lake, a former supervisor for the Tahoma Narcotics Enforcement Team,
told Vereen 105 pieces of property in Washington were affected by meth
labs in 1998, and that figure has already reached 110 this year.

It costs an average of $20,000 to make each piece of contaminated
property usable again, he said.

In addition, California law enforcement officials have estimated it
takes them an average of 2,700 hours to deal with each meth lab,
including cleaning up the site and prosecuting the criminals, he said.
It's probably similar in Washington, though police haven't kept
statistics, Lake said.

"We can't arrest our way out of this situation," he
said.

Lake said the solution has to come through constant education of
children, reinforced at home and in the schools.

That's one goal of this year's national drug control plan. Most adults
will avoid drug dependency in their lives if they grow up substance
free, according to drug policy documents.

"Research says that drug abuse is a preventable behavior," Vereen
said.

A five-year National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has targeted kids
between 9 and 18 so that they hear an average of four anti-drug
messages per week.

In addition, a non-advertising campaign will include a Web site to
provide information on how parents can detect if their kids are using
drugs.

But Vereen acknowledged it's easier and more effective to deal with
drug prevention issues at a state and local level.

The problem, said Darren Pen, outreach coordinator for the Hilltop
Action Coalition, is that federal money has not been available for
community organizations to provide citizens with information about
such things as identifying meth labs.

"We don't have the money to do those kinds of projects," he
said.

Priscilla Lisicich, executive director of Safe Streets, said she hopes
Thursday's conversation with Vereen will open up more federal money.

"I feel like we've been heard," she said.