Former Self-Esteem Panel Chief to Head State Drug Programs

Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday appointed Andy Mecca, the former chairman of the state Task Force on Self-Esteem, as director of the Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.

Mecca, 44, served 12 years as the head of Marin County’s Alcohol Services Program and is the head of the nonprofit California Health Research Foundation. Mecca, a Democrat and decorated Vietnam War veteran, also directed the Army Medical Corps Drug Treatment Services. He succeeds Chauncey Veatch III in the $99,805-a-year post.

Mecca’s appointment requires Senate ratification.

The Republican governor described Mecca at a Capitol news conference as “a man with a mission” who “will not rest until he makes California as drug-free as possible.” He said that, under Mecca, California will put greater emphasis on preventing drug and alcohol abuse.

“We must reduce demand. For too long its been seen as an enforcement problem,” Wilson said.

As chief of Alcohol and Drug Programs, Mecca will direct the state’s efforts to prevent and minimize effects of alcohol and drug abuse and addiction.

Mecca said he learned firsthand about alcohol and drug abuse because his mother and brother had addiction problems.

Mecca cited the similarities between the findings of the self-esteem commission and Wilson’s new emphasis on prevention rather than punishment or cure in crime, drugs and education programs.

The self-esteem commission that Mecca headed from 1986 to 1989, formally known as the California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem and Personal Responsibility, was ridiculed nationally in Doonesbury comic strips, but also is widely quoted on its findings linking lack of self-esteem to crime, drugs, child abuse and other problems.