President’s Message to O.C. About Drugs

On April 25, George Bush, President of the United States, paid a visit to Orange County to present local law enforcement officials with more than $4 million confiscated from local drug dealers. Members of the various media were there and dutifully documented the occasion, or did they?

In his 20-minute presentation, President Bush discussed the tragic devastation perpetrated by drugs. He mentioned the 401 Orange County residents, ranging in age from 1 month to 82 years, who had died with cocaine and/or heroin in their systems in the 27 months preceding his visit.

The President commended the officers of the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program who, in the same 27-month period, had taken 37 million doses of cocaine and 9 million injections of heroin off the streets of Orange County.

As he has done before, President Bush called upon each member of our society to do whatever they could, individually or collectively, to help rid our county of the plague of illicit narcotics. The President praised the residents of Orange County, the high school students, the business leaders, church groups, sports organizations, civic leaders and the private individuals who had already answered his call to halt the demand for these substances by getting the word out: “We want a drug-free America.”

The President asked that even more people get involved and end the devastation and undermining of our society. Then, and only then, did the President present more than $4 million to local law enforcement, along with his entreaty to “keep up the good work and continue to set an example for the rest of our great country.”

Did the media accurately document the true and correct context of President Bush’s visit to Orange County?

Did they assist him in getting out the message that a resident of Orange County dies every other day with cocaine or heroin in his system?

Did they point out that, in slightly more than two years, enough drugs were taken off the streets of Orange County to supply every man, woman and child in the county with 15 doses of cocaine and four injections of heroin?

Did the media address the alarming fact that, even with a successful interdiction rate of 20% by local law enforcement, cocaine and heroin worth more than $15 million enters our county each and every month?

Perhaps members of the media merely misunderstood the true purpose of the President’s visit to Orange County. A visit, mind you, that was initiated by the President and not , as was implied by grandstanding officials some two months later, as a “dog-and-pony show” or “political posturing” by local law enforcement figures.

Let’s all get with the program to support a drug-free Orange County.

ROBERT J. SPARR

Corona del Mar