By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Sunday, April 5, 1992
The Record (New Jersey) | All Editions | NEWS | A34
Although winnable, the war on drugs is now being lost, at least on the international front.
That was the conclusion of Rep. Robert G. Torricelli, D-Englewood, in a status report he gave to Bergen County law enforcement officials in Hackensack on Friday. In a 30-minute briefing that had little good news, he offered a bleak assessment of the struggle.
“The battle against the growers is largely lost,” said Torricelli, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Western Hemisphere affairs. “While we’ve dramatically increased federal spending, the actual coca production rate has increased 400 percent.”
The U.S. government has spent almost $12 billion since 1982 to fight drugs, he said.
However, much of that ended up in the pockets of narcotics traffickers, who then used the money to buy protection from Andean nations law enforcement agencies charged with halting their illegal trade, Torricelli added.
He called for a renewed effort against drugs on the home front, in “our families, schools, and communities, and not in the jungle of Peru.”
“We’ve lost battles, but there is no reason not win the war,” he said.
Fort Lee Police Chief John Orso, one of about 70 police chiefs, narcotics officers, and county officials present, cited the success of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in the borough’s public schools. He said that effort should be intensified as a way to cut down on the demand for drugs.
Paramus Police Chief Joseph Delaney recalled testifying before a U.S. Senate committee in 1975, when the war on drugs was focused on the heroin trade in Turkey. The problem then, as now, was that communities and local law enforcement agencies were starved of resources to wage a credible war.
Echoing the sentiment of many in the audience, Delaney asked Torricelli what he had to offer them in terms of additional resources.
A crime bill passed recently by the House of Representatives and now being considered by the Senate contains $3 billion for local programs, Torricelli said. However, he said, it contains a provision calling for a seven-day waiting period to purchase guns.
President Bush has promised to veto legislation containing gun-control measures, he said.
Englewood Police Capt. C. Kenneth Tinsley asked Torricelli about incentives to encourage law enforcement officers and other public employees to live in the communities in which they work. City neighborhoods could be stabilized by the presence of these officers, he said.
One of the reasons many give for not living in the community is the high cost of housing, Tinsley added. Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber answered that the county Housing Authority is considering a proposal to aid public employees, especially law enforcement workers, with low-interest loans and mortgages.
Caption: PHOTO – Rep. Robert G. Torricelli, D-Englewood, speaking Friday in Hackensack at a briefing on the war on drugs. AL PAGLIONE / THE RECORD –
ID: 17373429 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)
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