Assembly Presses Bush for More Drug-War Aid : President Urged to Designate S.D., L.A. High-Intensity Trafficking Areas

President Bush’s $8-billion war on drugs may turn up the heat on the Colombian cocaine cartel, but it doesn’t go far enough to stem the flow of narcotics through the border via San Diego to Los Angeles, state lawmakers say.

To make the point, the state Assembly on Wednesday unanimously approved language calling on Bush to officially designate the gang-torn neighborhoods of Los Angeles and the porous international border of San Diego and Imperial counties “high-intensity drug-trafficking areas.”

Under the existing law, Bush and his federal drug czar can invoke that designation in order to send more federal enforcement money and manpower to places like Southern California, the port of entry for an estimated 50% of the country’s cocaine and other drugs.

But so far Bush has declined to use the drug-zone designation at all, and indications are that he won’t do so until at least February--a delay that has baffled and angered California politicians in Washington and in Sacramento.

Wilson Complained About Lapse

U. S. Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) complained about the lapse in a letter to Bush last month, referring to his tenure as San Diego’s mayor to underscore the drug problem.

“Mr. President, when Mayor of the largest city on our border with Mexico, I personally witnessed and experienced the frustration of local communities and local officials facing a growing drug problem,” Wilson wrote.

“Now representing the entire State of California, I have seen the effects of the drug epidemic statewide and along the Southwest border. . . . While federal agencies have helped, they are grossly understaffed,” he added.

Now, the cause of the high-intensity drug zones has been taken up by state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), assisted by Assemblywoman Carol Bentley (R-El Cajon).

Seymour said he is worried about the remote possibility that Southern California could be overlooked altogether when the designations are expected to be announced early next year.

Even if Los Angeles and the Mexican border area are included, he said it could take until 1991 before the federal government cuts loose the extra tens of millions of dollars needed to step up the fight against drugs on the domestic front.

‘Don’t Want Any Foot-Dragging’

“I just don’t want any foot-dragging on it, and I want to make sure that Los Angeles and the southern border area, including San Diego, is certainly designated,” said Seymour, who served as a state co-chairman in Bush’s election campaign.

Thus, Seymour decided to draft a direct appeal to Bush and have it inserted into one of his existing anti-drug Senate bills, which was up for consideration in the Assembly this week. Bentley offered the amendments on behalf of Seymour, and the Assembly approved the bill Wednesday.

“Florida was considered the gateway of the major drug imports until the federal government moved recently to close that down,” Bentley said.

Now the drug-importing trade has “shifted” to the less-prepared Southwestern border, Bentley said.

“I think it’s appropriate to get the federal government to come and assist us the way it did . . . in Florida,” she said.

The Seymour amendment includes a litany of statistics to prove how drugs are becoming the scourge of San Diego and Los Angeles.

It says that, in San Diego, the number of young people arrested on drug-related charges increased from 252 in 1980 to 410 in 1987. In the first six months of 1988 alone, the number of narcotics-related homicides stood at 24.

PCP Centers

The Seymour language also mentions that San Diego and Southern California are centers for the manufacture of PCP.

According to the amendment, the amount of drugs seized between 1976 and 1986 in Los Angeles skyrocketed 19,500%, while the number of cocaine-related deaths has increased more than 200% since 1984.

Seymour also cites the rising power of Los Angeles’ youth gangs as an indicator of the increased flow of drugs through the country’s second largest city. There are 250 Los Angeles gangs, boasting a collective membership of more than 30,000.

“Just as the elaborate and violent activities of Colombia’s drug cartels reach into communities throughout the United States, Los Angeles’ Blood and Crips drug gangs have expanded operations into more than 50 cities nationwide, in effect, constituting the wholesale and retail distributors for the cocaine of Colombia’s drug lords,” says the amendment.

The new language now goes to the Senate for concurrence and, if passed, will go to Gov. George Deukmejian.