Drug Epidemic’s Cost Is Too High

Yet another record-breaking drug bust made local headlines this week. The Los Angeles Police Department seized more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine on Monday, bringing the city’s 1987 cocaine confiscations to a record 9,000 pounds--a 30% increase over the same period last year. But U.S. drug-enforcement officials say that the amount confiscated represents only 12% to 14% of the cocaine currently on the streets of Los Angeles. Not surprisingly, one police officer called Los Angeles the drug capital of the nation. Statistics that are available indicate that this may be true.

Since Southern California replaced Florida as the primary corridor for drug traffic from Central and South America, available cocaine here has increased dramatically. Drug-enforcement officials say that California’s proximity to Mexico gives traffickers easy access to the United States and that cocaine is arriving by boats, airplanes and road vehicles in record quantities.

But Los Angeles also provides an eager market for the now-inexpensive cocaine. Although recent studies indicate that overall drug use has leveled off, the National Institute on Drug Abuse says that cocaine use has not. A 1986 survey of Los Angeles hospital emergency rooms and medical examiners indicates that cocaine-related cases rose 69% over the previous year’s. Los Angeles County reported that more than 100,000 people were convicted of drug-related crimes last year. And drug experts say that these figures do not begin to represent the whole problem. Once thought to be a trendy drug of the upper middle class, cocaine has now crossed all socioeconomic levels in its use. Since the advent of crack--a potent, smokable form of cocaine--the drug can be had for as little as $5 to $10.

While the problem remains increasingly alarming, especially in Los Angeles, public funding for drug treatment has remained virtually unchanged since federal and state funding cutbacks in 1982. Although private drug-treatment programs are readily available to those with private insurance, county programs--especially in-patient treatment --have no room for most who are without insurance. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that only about 55% of 16-24-year-olds (an age group especially vulnerable to cocaine abuse) are covered by employment-related medical-insurance plans.

All indications are that the cocaine problem will continue its malignant growth until the demand disappears. Drug-education programs have been expanded, but adequate drug-treatment programs have not. That must change. The cost of this epidemic is too high to be ignored.