ONDCP Launches 25-City Initiative
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will be targeting 25 major urban areas with information and advice on how to spend their federal anti-drug funds, Reuters reported June 26.
ONDCP said it will work with local officials in each city to enhance knowledge of the latest methods of reducing illegal drug use and improve their efficiency in using federal anti-drug funds. John P. Walters, director of ONDCP, said some of the cities have experienced financial mismanagement that has made it difficult for drug treatment and prevention programs to reach more people.
The 25 cities chosen for the program are Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.
According to Walters, his office will not recommend solutions for drug problems in each individual city. Rather, he said, the intent is to help improve information sharing between cities and federal agencies and ease communications among law enforcement, courts, and prevention and treatment programs in each city.
Walters and his aides plan to visit each of the 25 cities to determine which programs are effective and to improve collaboration between all levels of law enforcement.
“We believe this initiative will not only help each individual city focus its efforts, but the successful programs and techniques we learn in one city can be shared with other cities also struggling with this problem,” Walters said.
The effort is aimed at meeting President Bush's pledge to lower illegal drug use by 10 percent by December 2003 and by 25 percent by 2006.
“This is beyond our usual responsibility,” Walters said. “If we are going to be successful, this is how the work gets done.”
