Pubdate: Tue, 28 Jun 2005
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2005 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Tamara Lytle

DRUG CZAR PUSHES CUTS TO PROGRAM

Slashing funds to the area's war on drugs would be harmful, Other officials
contend.

WASHINGTON -- Federal drug czar John P. Walters said Monday that a program
that brings millions in drug-fighting money to Central Florida and other
areas should be slashed.

Walters, who is spending today in Orlando making speeches and meeting with
local officials, has angered people nationally and in Florida with his
proposal.

Central Florida gets $2.5 million for the program from the White House
Office of National Drug Control Policy, which Walters runs. Ever since a
surge in heroin deaths in the 1990s, the region has been one of 28 in the
country designated as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Jacksonville
and South Florida also are on the list.

The HIDTA designation brings in extra money and sets up a system in which
state, local and federal law enforcement work together to break up drug
organizations.

"You're going to see more drugs on the street" if the cuts become law, said
Terry Fernandez, head of the Central Florida HIDTA and a federal narcotics
officer for 27 years before that. "You don't know how much good it does
until you take it away."

But President Bush earlier this year proposed cutting the program by 56
percent. Walters, in an interview Monday, said HIDTA had grown unfocused and
had not proved it breaks up the supply of drugs.

"We have to make choices about funding on the basis of both responsible
budgeting and program performance," Walters said.

But politicians of both parties and law-enforcement officials are fighting
the cut to the $227 million program. Nationally, HIDTA operations nabbed
12,000 fugitives and $10.5 billion in drugs last year.

"I'm very disappointed in our current drug czar," said Sen. Orrin Hatch,
R-Utah. "It's a stupid, idiotic move."

House members put the money back into their version of the budget, but the
Senate has not yet voted on the issue.

The proposed cut likely would mean the Central Florida HIDTA and others in
smaller towns will disappear entirely as the money goes to the biggest
cities, said Fernandez, whose area roughly covers the I-4 corridor. The
Central Florida program uses the money to pay overtime for law enforcement,
cars for officers and cash for undercover agents to buy drugs.

If Central Florida loses its HIDTA money, federal narcotics officers no
longer would be working with about 120 of their counterparts from local and
state agencies on joint projects such as nabbing violent drug-world
fugitives. Law-enforcement agencies would not do the same level of
intelligence-sharing. And local police would not have the power of a task
force that includes federal agents who can chase drug organizations across
jurisdictional lines, Fernandez said.

"You put a lot of police officers -- young, sharp guys -- with federal
officers whose badges are a little bigger, and it creates a good mix,"
Fernandez said.

Walters was a top aide at the drug czar's office during the administration
of the first President Bush from 1989-1993 and remembers the HIDTA program
when it covered only five big cities. The program was designed to funnel
money into areas that are major drug-distribution centers that affect the
rest of the country.

But Congress expanded the program. "Frankly the program drifted in the
mid-'90s and became larger in some cases because people in Congress . . .
wanted money for their communities," Walters said. He said the program
raises questions about whether it should be spread to every region or
focused on the few top drug-trade areas with the most impact on the rest of
the country.

Walters also wants to move what's left of the program out of his White House
office and into the U.S. Justice Department . That makes sense because the
Justice Department already runs other types of task forces, he said. But
Hatch said the program has more autonomy and less bureaucracy in its White
House home.

While in Central Florida, Walters is scheduled to speak to conventions of
coaches and guidance counselors today about topics such as drug testing in
schools. He also is set to meet with officials at Disney, which has an
employee drug-testing program, and with Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. 
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