Feds to strengthen anti-drug efforts in LV

Thursday, Jan. 4, 2001 | 11:20 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

WASHINGTON -- In his final week on the job, drug czar Barry McCaffrey gave Southern Nevada a farewell present.

McCaffrey announced today that Las Vegas, along with Jacksonville, Fla., would be added to the list of 26 federally designated High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas.

Those areas have been identified by McCaffrey's office as regions where drug manufacturing and sales flourish.

The federal program would build on task forces already in place in Southern Nevada to expand information-sharing between agencies, and strengthen enforcement efforts and prosecution, FBI special agent Daron Borst said.

"Everything in the program is designed to bring everyone together on the same page," Borst said.

Fourteen local law enforcement agencies in Southern Nevada submitted a 400-page proposal to join the federal program, Borst said.

Metro narcotics officers were not immediately available for comment.

The 10-year-old HIDTA program last year spent $192 million coordinating efforts among 949 local, 172 state and 35 federal law enforcement agencies. It was not immediately known how much federal money Las Vegas would get, but Nevada Sen. Harry Reid's office requested roughly $2.5 million.

A city is designated a HIDTA if local police already have made a substantial commitment to fight trafficking and if the area needs federal help to make more progress. Other criteria: if the area is a center for drug production, manufacturing, importation or distribution and if the area serves as a hub for distribution to other areas of the country.

In a final report to President Clinton, McCaffrey said longtime cries for a "war on drugs" were misleading.

"Although wars are expected to end, drug education -- like all schooling -- is a continuous process," the retired four-star general said in a report presented Thursday.

McCaffrey, who steps down Friday as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, stressed treatment as one of the goals of a national drug control strategy.

"We've got 5 million chronically addicted Americans," McCaffrey said in an interview today on CBS' "Early Show." "If we don't have them in effective drug treatment programs we can't ever break the cycle of crime, violence, accidents, health costs that come from drug abuse."

Among the other elements of the National Drug Control Strategy are:

McCaffrey urged the incoming Bush administration to continue anti-drug strategies, despite critics who say the drug war is not winnable.

"Drug abuse and its consequences can be reduced," he said. "By historical standards, present rates of drug use are relatively low. With the concerted effort outlined in the National Drug Control Strategy and this report, we can lower them further."