Agencies Launch Anti-Drug Publicity Campaign

Orange County officials Tuesday opened a campaign to permeate the county with anti-drug messages.

Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates, with the support of the Board of Supervisors, mayors of Orange County cities and state and federal law enforcement officials, called for businesses, schools, parents and individuals to spread the message--”Just Say ‘No’ to Drugs”--wherever they can.

“We want you to get mad,” Gates said during an hourlong presentation during the supervisors’ regular meeting in Santa Ana. “We want you to get so sick (of drugs that) you throw up.”

He asked Orange County businesses to display anti-drug signs and to stamp their mail with anti-drug messages. He announced that students all over the county are conducting anti-drug education programs.

As Gates talked, 180 people wearing T-shirts saying “I Died in (name of Orange County city),” paraded through the board’s chambers, carrying black balloons. The 180, Gates said, represented the 180 people who died as a result of drugs in Orange County last year.

Also last year, he noted, law enforcement officials confiscated 29 million doses of cocaine, 2.5 million doses of heroin and enough marijuana to roll 1 million cigarettes. Those seizures, he said, are believed to represent just 15% of the drugs that are trafficked annually in the county.

Also confiscated last year by a coalition of law enforcement agencies were $14.6 million in currency and property valued at $286,000.

Gates then led the supervisors and the audience outside, where 75 vehicles, representing various Orange County business and government agencies, circled the county Hall of Administration. The vehicles--including a hearse, garbage trucks, a cement mixer, police cruisers and antique cars--all had signs with anti-drug messages.

The garbage trucks, said Gates, have been enlisted to permanently sport their signs, which read: “Drugs are Garbage.”

When the procession ended, the 180 people released their black balloons into the sky. The balloons carried postcards asking people to pledge to fight against drug use and to return the cards to Gates.