Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 5, 1990 TAG: 9004041185
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Their conclusions are expected to be reflected in a report this month by William Bennett, the national drug policy adviser.
The fingerpointing has already begun, though, with federal and city officials blaming each other for a drug crisis that appears to continue unabated.
Federal officials say the city has failed to demonstrate deep commitment to controlling drug abuse and this is reflected in the January arrest of Mayor Marion Barry on cocaine charges.
City officials blame Bennett, saying he oversold the program from the start and failed to back up his promises with federal money.
One Barry aide suggested federal officials were discussing the report before its release in hopes that news accounts would focus on the city's, and not Bennett's, failures.
About all the two sides agree on is that illegal drugs remain relatively cheap and plentiful on the streets of Washington and that the frequency of drug-related killings has not dropped in a city now widely described as the nation's "murder capital."
As of Wednesday, police records show 127 killings in the city this year, close to last year's record pace. In 1989, there were 438 killings.
The report by Bennett's staff is expected to point to some limited successes: the creation, for example, of a special team of federal agents led by the Drug Enforcement Administration that has made scores of arrests and seized millions of dollars in assets from drug dealers.
But overall, officials say, the report will almost certainly be an embarrassment to the Bush administration, the municipal government and Bennett.
The federal crackdown in Washington was the first major initiative Bennett announced when he took the drug post last year. "You've got a situation that's a crisis," Bennett said in announcing the federal effort last March. "It's as bad as it can get."
His aides said the report is part of a commitment Bennett made last year to issue periodic updates on what is known in his office as "the D.C. plan." "He wants to be held accountable," one aide said.
In Congress, lawmakers lamented the symbolism in the federal government's inability to control drug abuse in the capital.
"What a great opportunity to take the nation's capital and to use it as an experiment to see what could be done on drugs," said Rep. Charles B. Rangel, the New York Democrat who chairs the Select Committee on Narcotics. "But everything has gotten worse: We've got more murders, more drug abuse, more crime."
Rangel held Bennett responsible. "You don't make declarations like this and then just quit," he said.
A spokesman said Bennett did not plan further comment on the emergency plan for the city until the report is released.
But he has made clear in the past that he holds the city largely responsible for the program's failings.
"We have done everything we committed to do," Bennett told a Senate panel in February. "But the federal responsibility cannot replace local responsibility."
He added, "We're tired of being flogged for a problem that is not of our making."
The administration originally promised an extra $100 million to drug programs in the city, much of it for jail space to hold drug offenders and other serious criminals.
As part of Bennett's plan, the federal government has also directed military prosecutors to assist in federal drug cases in the district and offered money for new drug treatment centers.
Government officials said Bennett and his aides had lived up to their promises, and the city simply failed to make use of the resources.
Because the city has been unable to agree on a jail construction plan, much of that money has not been spent. The result, federal officials said, has been overcrowding in the jails that allowed serious drug offenders to go free.
City officials, including Barry and his drug policy adviser, said through spokesmen that they would withhold public comment on Bennett's report until it is issued. Barry has denied the drug charges against him and has spurned calls to resign.
He recently completed a drug rehabilitation program.
A spokeswoman for the city's office of drug control policy, Cynthia Harris, disputed suggestions that the federal effort had been a failure.
"There have been successes," she said, noting a recent study that showed a drop in the percentage of people arrested in Washington who showed evidence of drug use. Urinalysis testing showed that among the adults arrested in the city last year, 67 percent showed evidence of drug use, compared to 72 percent in 1988.
"Our problem is that drug abuse is so pervasive that it will take quite a while to get it fully under control," she said.
by CNB