Feinstein Proposes ‘Drug Czar’ to Coordinate State’s Efforts

With her two political opponents already proposing solutions to California’s drug problem, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dianne Feinstein unveiled her own plan Thursday, calling for a “drug czar” to coordinate enforcement, education and treatment efforts.

“(California) state and local agencies will spend some $9 billion this year on programs to combat illicit drug use, but there is no state strategy to effectively coordinate those resources,” Feinstein said in remarks prepared for delivery in Manhattan Beach.

Much as what is being done at the federal level, Feinstein said that if elected in 1990 she would name one person to “draft a comprehensive plan to combat drug use on the supply side and the demand side.”

“At present,” Feinstein said, “there is no statewide drug plan, no strategy to fight narcotics. And President Bush’s drug plan fails to give California the resources it needs or the priority it deserves to wage an effective battle.”

To finance her plan, Feinstein said she would seek bond measures if necessary.

She also called for mandatory jail sentences for the sale of narcotics on the first offense and for same-day treatment programs for pregnant women who are on drugs.

U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, has introduced legislation in the Senate that would earmark the money now spent on congressional newsletters for fighting the drug problem.

A special focus of Wilson’s efforts is the increasing number of women who give birth to drug-addicted babies in California.

In Los Angeles County alone, that number has jumped from 500 cases in 1985 to more than 2,500 today, according to Dr. Margaret Yonekura, chief of Obstetrics, Maternal and Fetal Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.

Yonekura recently got a promise from Wilson to find more money for a program she runs for crack-addicted mothers and newborns.

Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, Feinstein’s opponent for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, announced this week that he would try to qualify an initiative for the November, 1990, ballot that would raise taxes on corporations and target the revenue for drug enforcement and treatment programs statewide.

Van de Kamp described his proposed financing plan as an adjustment in the accounting methods now used by some corporations that he said would bring their state tax procedures into line with the methods they use in computing their federal taxes.