Officials Urge Drug Designation for County

About 25 area officials Friday joined Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) in calling on President Bush and national drug czar William J. Bennett to give Los Angeles County a greater share of money going to local jurisdictions under Bush’s drug-fighting plan.

If the Administration fails to designate Los Angeles County as a “high-intensity drug trafficking area” it may get less money than other cities around the country, Dymally and the local officials said at a news conference the congressman organized at Compton City Hall.

Congressional representatives, police chiefs, county supervisors and other officials have been lobbying Bush and Bennett to grant Los Angeles the designation, arguing that it has become the largest drug importing and distribution center in the United States and has never gotten its fair share of federal drug enforcement dollars. So far, the administration has not announced which cities will get the designation, which brings with it extra drug-fighting funds.

Dymally and other House Democrats also have charged that the state of California will get only $52 million under Bush’s drug plan but that federal budget cuts in other areas such as juvenile justice will cost the state more than $200 million this year.