Pubdate: Sat, 06 Apr 2002
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2002 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper.
Contact:  http://www.sunspot.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Del Quentin Wilber

CITY LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN TO COMBAT DRUGS, CRIME

Four-Minute TV Ad Will Start Airing Monday

Flanked by federal, state and city officials, as well as civic and 
religious leaders, Mayor Martin O'Malley officially launched a $2 million 
media campaign yesterday to urge people to fight harder against drugs and 
crime, saying it was a "call to action."

"We cannot give up on one of our neighbors," O'Malley said. "We have to try 
harder. ... The time has come to turn the corner."

The campaign - dubbed "Baltimore Believe" - begins Monday with a four- 
minute movie that will be played on the city's television stations. The 
advertisement, a spot that shows people using heroin and crack cocaine and 
has a young boy talking about problems associated with Baltimore's deeply 
rooted drug culture, will air for about two weeks in condensed versions.

In the next 11 weeks, four other shorter spots will air, offering residents 
a central phone number, which has not been released, to call to volunteer 
to help children, seek drug treatment or join the police force.

The campaign, being funded by the Baltimore Police Foundation, also will 
have print advertisements, including a "Declaration of Independence from 
Drugs," in The Sun on April 14.

O'Malley and other city officials said the campaign is an unusual way to 
try to galvanize the public into defeating two of the city's biggest 
problems - drugs and crime. It is unclear how successful an advertising 
campaign will be at dislodging a drug culture that permeates city life - 
60,000 city residents, about one in 10, are addicted to illegal drugs.

And though police statistics show violent crime has dropped about 21 
percent in the past two years, Baltimore is still one of America's most 
crime-ridden cities.

O'Malley was joined by dozens of officials and civic leaders at yesterday's 
news conference at Israel Baptist Church in East Baltimore. All said that 
it was time for residents across the state to come together to fight drug 
abuse and crime.

Most politicians had quietly slipped out of the church by the time Israel 
Cason, the conference's last speaker, stood on the podium and was greeted 
by the morning's loudest applause.

Cason, director of a local drug treatment group, I Can't, We Can, said 
there was hope for those battling drug addiction.

"We do believe that people do recover," Cason said.
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