Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jan 2006
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2006 The Miami Herald
Contact:  http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262
Author: Michael Vasquez
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

STRIDES MADE IN DRUG WAR

Miami Has Made Significant Progress In Combating Substance Abuse, 
City Leaders And The Nation's Drug Czar Said

Miami leaders boasted Tuesday their city has shed its 1980s 
cocaine-capital reputation and cited statistics that placed Miami's 
drug-usage rates below state and national figures in several 
categories as proof.

Some examples, released by the federal government last year and 
compiled from surveys taken between 1999 and 2001: About 5.7 percent 
of Miami-Dade County residents over the age of 12 reported using an 
illicit drug in the past month. The national rate was roughly 6.7 
percent. For the state of Florida, it was roughly 6.1 percent.

Marijuana use in the past month and cocaine use in the past year for 
the same age group were also slightly lower for Miami-Dade than for 
Florida and the nation.

"That's not an accident," said John Walters, director of the White 
House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who attended a news 
conference Tuesday. "No city in America was more devastated by 
cocaine and drug use than Miami in the 1980s. You have learned by 
pain, and you have learned by experience."

'Miami Advice'

Walters held up Miami as an example of a city comprehensively 
attacking its drug problems, and the city Tuesday released a draft of 
a strategic plan it hopes will achieve more progress and help other 
municipalities. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz proclaimed his city has 
evolved from "Miami Vice to Miami Advice."

To be sure, not all the research data on Miami is positive. The 
city's plan notes that, among new drug users, the use of powder 
cocaine is on the rise, and that South Florida continues to be a 
major narcotics entry point and base of operations for drug 
traffickers. Miami-Dade County residents spend an estimated $570 
million annually on cocaine and marijuana, the plan says.

A proposed new wrinkle in Miami's anti-drug efforts, included in the 
strategic plan, is designed to shut down open-air drug markets in the 
impoverished Overtown neighborhood. Between 2003 and 2005, about 70 
percent of those arrested for drug offenses in Overtown didn't live 
in the neighborhood. Those individuals, police say, are fueling the 
area's problems and need to be kept out.

Within a month or so, first- and second-time offenders who drive into 
Overtown from other places to buy or sell drugs may find themselves 
eligible for probation only if they agree to not return to the 
neighborhood. For those offenders, getting spotted by police in 
Overtown without a valid reason -- such as commuting to work -- would 
be deemed a probation violation and could result in jail time.

The tactic, known as "mapping," has been used for several years with 
prostitutes arrested in the city's most notorious red-light 
districts. In exchange for not being placed behind bars, prostitutes 
promise to stay away from where they once worked.

Deputy Police Chief Frank Fernandez said prostitute mapping has led 
to fewer repeat offenses, though he conceded that some prostitutes 
simply may have taken their trade to other parts of town.

In the case of Overtown's drug transactions, Fernandez said the key 
to eliminating the business -- as opposed to just moving it elsewhere 
- -- is successfully partnering drug-use prevention and rehabilitation 
programs with law enforcement. Miami's anti-drug plan calls for 
exactly that, and attributes the city's broader successes so far to 
its use of a unified approach.

Solid Strategy

"All these things coming together is what makes this strategy so 
solid," Fernandez said.

Nevertheless, Overtown activist Irby McKnight expressed skepticism of 
the proposed "mapping" in his neighborhood, which he said amounted to 
limiting private citizens' movement.

"Is that legal in America?" McKnight asked. He suggested economic 
development would do more to get drug dealers off the street. 'These 
little boys . . . a lot of them come to me and say, 'Can you help get 
me a job? I'm sick of running from the police,' " McKnight said.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman