At Time of Arrest : Mandatory Drug Testing of Criminals Is Urged

About 60 mayors, police chiefs and other government officials began a two-day conference Thursday in San Diego on the subject of “Winning the War on Drugs: What Cities Must Do.”

Sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the seminar at the U.S. Grant Hotel is intended to update officials on the funding that local governments can expect to receive from the new Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986.

Aside from hearing about the financing intricacies of the new law, the officials--including some from U.S. departments of Justice, Health and Human Services and Education--heard James K. Stewart, director of the National Institute of Justice, urge cities and counties to adopt mandatory drug testing of people arrested for crimes.

Stewart, whose agency serves as the research arm for the U.S. Department of Justice, said recent studies in New York and Washington have shown that as many as 80% of the people arrested in those cities tested positive for drugs.

Mandatory drug testing, he said, would provide police and local governments more accurate information on drug use among those suspected of commiting crimes, offer a foundation on which to base remedial drug-abuse programs and give judges information they can use in making decisions on release or bail.

Stewart said mandatory drug testing also would provide a basis for requiring criminals to undergo periodic drug testing and rehabilitative treatment.

The mandatory drug testing program now used in Washington will be discussed today at 9:30 a.m.

Joseph Riley, the mayor of Charleston, S.C., and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said that seminars such as this one “keep the issue before the public . . . and highlight the problem.”

Today’s featured speaker is Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York), chairman of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control.