Bennett Aide in O.C. Assails Drug-Legalization Effort : Narcotics: The national policy director’s aide says making street drugs legal would solve nothing and cost Americans dearly.

With a “Drug Use Is Life Abuse” pin in his lapel, a top aide to national drug policy director William J. Bennett on Tuesday criticized the growing drug-legalization movement as a misguided effort that would increase human suffering and cost the nation billions of dollars.

“What are you going to do, legalize PCP and crack?” Judge Reggie B. Walton asked a luncheon gathering at UC Irvine. “Look at what happened in Washington, D.C., where 13 men assaulted and (sodomized) a woman while high on PCP and where another woman on crack took a ligature and strangled two children. How do we legalize stuff like that?”

Walton, assistant director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, also gave no assurances to Sheriff Brad Gates that Orange County would be included in a new program for the nation’s worst drug-infested areas.

President Bush has decided to declare at least four regions of the country as “high-intensity drug trafficking areas,” which will qualify them for increased federal assistance in the so-called war on drugs.

Areas so designated will be disclosed at month’s end, when the President’s budget is announced. Part, if not all, of Southern California is very likely to be among the regions selected for additional law enforcement funds, government officials say.

Walton, 40, a point man for Bennett’s effort to develop and implement a national drug strategy, came to Orange County to meet with public officials and peruse county programs for ideas to be incorporated into the Bush Administration’s anti-drug effort.

The former Superior Court judge from Washington said he was particularly encouraged by a host of alliances formed by county law enforcement, business, local government, and educators to combat drug and alcohol addiction through education and treatment.

Among other things, Walton met with the County Board of Supervisors, UC Irvine educators and members of the Orange County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership, a coalition of cities, county drug officials, school districts, and UCI; and the Drug Use Is Life Abuse program that involves local business and industry.

“There are some real problems--drug sales by undocumented immigrants and jail and prison overcrowding,” Walton said, “but there are some areas I am impressed with. They are getting the message out that drug use is a problem here.”

During the visit, Walton leveled his harshest words at a small but growing effort to legalize drugs and eliminate law enforcement problems associated with narcotics. Proponents include nationally renowned economist Milton Friedman, former Secretary of State George P. Schultz and conservative commentator William F. Buckley.

Walton said that drugs, if legalized, would become as great a problem as alcohol and cigarettes, which harm and kill far more people annually than addiction to illegal street drugs. Government figures show that alcohol alone costs the nation $118 billion a year in health costs, accidents and law enforcement problems.

“Unlike drinking, drug use will never be socially acceptable,” Walton said. “At the dinner table, you can’t light up your crack pipe. There are no crack cocktails. People will still get drugs on the black market so they won’t be identified as a drug user.”

Most of Walton’s morning was spent in cordial give-and-take discussions about federal drug policy. But he took some heat from Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who questioned whether the war on drugs was well-coordinated and wished him, “Good luck.”

Her colleague, Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, confronted Walton with a National League of Cities report critical of the Bush Administration. The report found an increase in crime in areas where drug supplies have been cut and concluded that the President’s policy makers have not informed cities how to deal with that increase. Walton responded that the criticism was from politicians who “wanted the problems solved overnight.”

Orange County Superior Court Judge David Carter requested that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service play more of a role in relieving jail overcrowding by deporting illegal immigrants convicted of drug offenses.

Walton declined to comment on whether Orange County will be declared a “high-intensity drug trafficking area,” except to say the designation will be based on regional, not municipal, boundaries.

Gates, who met with Walton for two hours, said he received no assurances from the judge after trying to impress on him the need for such a designation for Orange County, now identified as a major transportation hub for drug traffickers.

“We gave him a real good understanding of what is going on,” Gates said as Walton boarded a plane at John Wayne Airport. “We are not much different than Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino. We are all under the same gun.”