Bradley Proposes Cabinet-Level State ‘Drug Czar’ Post

Mayor Tom Bradley Thursday proposed creation of a state cabinet-level “drug czar” to oversee drug-abuse prevention programs, saying that Gov. George Deukmejian has not recognized the depth of the drug problem in California.

Bradley, who had retreated from gubernatorial campaigning two weeks ago after a major campaign staff shake-up that included naming a new campaign manager, made the drug proposal during a press conference at Belmont High School near downtown Los Angeles.

Bradley, along with Los Angeles Raiders tight end Todd Christiansen, delivered anti-drug speeches to about 1,000 students during an assembly.

Bradley aides said the mayor’s anti-drug proposal is the beginning of a “significant focus” on an anti-drug theme in the Bradley campaign.

Citing statistics he said he had received from the state attorney general’s office, Bradley told the assembly that by the time students reach seventh grade, 10% say they have experimented with or used drugs; the number of users grows to 36% by ninth grade and 51% by the 11th grade.

Bradley called the statistics “shocking.” In addition to more parent and teacher involvement, “we need law enforcement sometimes . . . to eliminate the drug dealer, the worse scourge on the face of this earth.”

Talking with reporters later, Bradley proposed a “drug czar, one who is answerable directly to the governor.”

If he were governor, Bradley said, the drug chief would oversee and coordinate all drug-abuse prevention and treatment programs, including counseling and training for teachers and mandatory programs to teach students the dangers of drug abuse from kindergarten to the 12th grade.

“Unless we have this kind of strategy,” Bradley said, “we are simply going to be putting our fingers in the hole in the dike.”

Deukmejian “has failed in this regard to recognize the need for a program that will deal with this problem,” Bradley said. For example, the governor vetoed an $11-million addition to the state budget of the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, Bradley said. A letter earlier this year from the California Assn. of County Drug Program Administrators that was critical of the state’s leadership in drug programs and a 25% cut in the department staff are “the best indication I can think of that, one, he doesn’t know what’s going on, (and) secondly, he’s demonstrated that he doesn’t really care.”

Chauncey L. Veatch III, director of the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs and a Deukmejian appointee, disputed Bradley’s conclusions.

“We have made efficiency reductions in the department,” Veatch said. “But the mayor is badly misinformed about what that means. If the job can be done while accruing savings to the taxpayers, that’s a good thing.”

Overall, Veatch said, the department’s budget has increased from $103 million in 1982 to $118 million this year. The governor, Veatch added, has signed drug prevention bills, including one that provided $7.6 million for drug suppression in schools.