Times Series on Cocaine

The Times is to be commended for the outstanding articles on Latin America’s cocaine industry (Dec. 1-4). These articles should be required reading for everyone in the United States.

Times’ reporters graphically portray this growth industry for what it is--a tragedy from beginning to end. It starts with the pathetic Peruvian farmer who sees coca as a highly profitable crop, in great demand and as a way out of his grinding poverty. He does not understand why his own government, prompted by the United States, wants to destroy his crop and dash his hopes for a brighter future. He certainly does not understand the people of the United States who smugly, arrogantly, and illegally create an increasing demand for cocaine on the one hand while pressuring the Peruvian government to destroy his coca fields on the other. The mixed signals we, the people of the United States, send to the Peruvian farmer easily shape his attitude toward us as one of contempt, and well it should.

The love affair that too many of our people have for cocaine and other chemicals currently abused should cause us to have more than a little contempt for ourselves.

The Los Angeles Police Department has in the past year engaged in a total spectrum approach to this priority-one problem. It is a system of supply and demand in its purest form. To deal with the supply side, we have engaged in an enforcement and interdiction effort of unprecedented proportions for a municipal police agency. Thus far, 1985 has produced more than 30,000 narcotic arrests, 1 tons of cocaine, 14 tons of marijuana, and $12 million in cash seized. The street value of all narcotics seized in 1985 exceeds $1.25 billion. I anticipate an even more vigorous effort in 1986. Perhaps the Legislature will provide us with court-authorized electronic surveillance, which would greatly enhance our ability to get at more of the major narcotic dealers.

On the other end of our full spectrum approach, we are attacking the problem of demand. For the past two years, we have worked very closely with the Los Angeles Unified School District in the development of the Drub Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. The school experts have produced a 17-lesson plan, which our uniformed police officers present to fifth and sixth graders. A shorter program is designed for junior high, with a follow-on into the high school. From every indication, DARE is an incredible success.

Unfortunately, DARE is in only some of our elementary and junior high schools even though principals, teachers, parents and children are clamoring for the program in all our schools. DARE is my No. 1 budget priority for 1986-87. I have tried to obtain funding from the city, the state and the private sector as a partnership that recognizes the need to stamp out this terrible plague attacking our children and will, unabated, ultimately destroy our nation.

So far, the private sector has been the most responsive. Individuals and foundations have given generously. The state, through the particular wisdom of Gov. George Deukmejian and Assemblywoman Marian LaFollette (R-Woodland Hills) has provided a start-up grant with hope for additional funding. Now is the time for the city and the schools to match this effort by designating specific funds for putting DARE into every school in Los Angeles by September, 1986. The cost of DARE is modest, particularly compared to what The Times points out is an $80- to $100-billion industry. The total cost of DARE in Los Angeles is $3.5 million, less than 1% of the total police budget--an exceptional bargain when considering the potential disaster created by doing nothing.

DARYL F. GATES

Chief of Police

Los Angeles