Drug Czar

When the nation's drug czar visited Friday, the recovering addicts at Tuerk House in West Baltimore did a little showing off. Those taking the culinary jobs training course whipped up a lavish breakfast. Those in the landscaping and maintenance program spruced up the grounds. "It's been a blessing to me," Mack Campbell, 56, said of the program that he hopes will finally break his personal cycle of addiction, imprisonment and relapse. "I'm learning how to live without drugs. " Inside, Gil Kerlikowske was offering much the same message — but on a broader level.

Underneath the mattress isn't going to cut it. Neither will tucking it behind the stack of "Twilight" books. Not even pushing it deep into the toe of a smelly gym shoe. The dog will find it. And he'll know it's not oregano. A new service in Maryland is promising parents peace of mind by allowing them to essentially rent a drug-sniffing dog, a highly trained canine that will come to their house and within seconds, detect even the tiniest whiff of narcotics. The program allows ordinary moms and dads access to a search tool typically reserved for law enforcement — and typically aimed at suspected criminals.

WASHINGTON -- Gov. Bob Martinez of Florida, a Republican who recently lost a bid for re-election, will be appointed by President Bush as the nation's next drug czar, White House and administration sources indicated yesterday.Governor Martinez would succeed William J. Bennett as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the drug czar's official title. Mr. Bennett, who resigned the office Nov. 8, is expected to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, succeeding Lee Atwater, who has been undergoing intensive treatment for a brain tumor.

When the nation's drug czar visited Friday, the recovering addicts at Tuerk House in West Baltimore did a little showing off. Those taking the culinary jobs training course whipped up a lavish breakfast. Those in the landscaping and maintenance program spruced up the grounds. "It's been a blessing to me," Mack Campbell, 56, said of the program that he hopes will finally break his personal cycle of addiction, imprisonment and relapse. "I'm learning how to live without drugs. " Inside, Gil Kerlikowske was offering much the same message — but on a broader level.

Anne Arundel drug czar Huntley J. Cross is leaving the limelight to go back to school.Nineteen months after taking over the Office of Drug and Alcohol Programs, Cross is ending his television spots to return to a post hepreviously held with the county school system. He will become assistant for pupil services as of July 1, said Louise Hayman, spokeswoman for County Executive Robert R. Neall.A veteran school administrator, Cross was praised widely as the driving force behind the school system's substance abuse program before former County Executive O. James Lighthizer appointed him drug czar in October 1988.

An administrator for federal drug abuse prevention programs has beenappointed to the $50,000-a-year post as county drug czar.The appointment, made by County Executive Robert R. Neall, was announced yesterday.Charlestine Fairley, program officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Substance Abuse Prevention, will assume the post as director of the county drug and alcohol abuse prevention program April 1.The job means overseeing a $423,000 annualbudget and 10 staff members in an office set up to curb drug and alcohol abuse through youth tutorial and mentor programs, seminars in parenting skills and doling out grants.

Huntley Cross, the county's drug czar, is moving on.I don't knowif Cross is moving back to his old job in the school system because he wants to or because the Neall administration put him on rollers and tilted the floor toward the door.I've put in a call to Frank Robinson, leading expert on the transition phase of employment, but Frank hasn't gotten back to me yet.My gut feeling is that all is not well in czarland, and Cross was infected by the same disease that took the professional life of his Annapolis counterpart, Eric Avery.

People are telling Darius Stanton that they don't understand why he did it.Why would Annapolis' drug czar, believed to be the youngest drug policy official on the East Coast, suddenly relinquish his job in City Hall and set up shop in a tattered community center in one of the most troubled neighborhoods in Annapolis?He smiles broadly. "I felt it was time for growth and change," he said.Mr. Stanton, now 24, was only 18 when Anne Arundel County Executive Robert R. Neall hired him to work for his drug and alcohol prevention office.

If you look anywhere this summer, you'll see the man. There he is denouncing the New York Yankees for having "struck out" by signing Darryl Strawberry, who had been suspended for drug use. Then he's taking on "look-alike" products -- gum, candy and soda -- that resemble tobacco or alcohol products. There he is praising Colombia for arresting "the world's most wanted criminal."He is Lee P. Brown, 57, the White House director of drug control policy, also known as the "drug czar." And after two low-key years in office, he is mounting an attention-grabbing campaign.

WASHINGTON - Our nation's drug czar is annoyed. If proponents have their way, the District of Columbia will vote later this year to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes for the second time. John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, took some pot shots at the issue in a recent Washington Post piece that has been reprinted across the country. Unfortunately, he brings more smoke than light. "After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories like the 1936 movie Reefer Madness," he writes, "we've become almost conditioned to think that any warning about the true dangers of marijuana are overblown."

T he window of opportunity to bring down drug trafficking organizations in Central and South America is quickly shrinking. However, despite its recent efforts, the Obama administration still lacks the one thing that we desperately need to win the fight against the cartels: a strategy. While it may seem like an obvious thing to have, the United States surprisingly lacks a comprehensive plan to bring down drug trafficking organizations. The federal government does have some counterdrug strategies, but they are either too broad - like the annual National Drug Control Strategy, which reads more like an "accomplishment report" of past successes rather than a "how to" manual - or too narrowly focused, like the National Southwest Border Counternarcotics Strategy, which addresses, among other things, ways to strengthen security along the border itself.

In Baltimore last week, new U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske made the case for expansion of drug courts to treat rather than imprison addicts and called for drugs to be considered a "public health crisis." Why, then, is the Obama administration proposing to spend an even higher percentage of its anti-drug resources on law enforcement than the administration of George W. Bush? Nowhere are these issues more resonant than in Baltimore. Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, a star of HBO's The Wire and a native of the city, said that her mother stole clothes off of her body for drug money and locked her in a closet.

Mexican drug czar held in theft from cartel 4 MEXICO CITY: Mexico accused its former drug czar yesterday of taking $450,000 from a cartel he was supposed to destroy, going public with a scandal that deals a serious blow to the country's U.S.-backed drug war. Noe Ramirez is the highest-ranking law enforcement official detained yet as part of Mexico's sweeping effort to weed out officials who allegedly shared police information with violent drug smugglers....

The White House drug czar visited Frederick Douglass High in West Baltimore yesterday to laud a faith-based program that places youth advisers in troubled schools. John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said he was "very, very impressed" with the work being done by New Vision Youth Services. The program started in 2005 at Baltimore's Southwestern high school complex but moved to Douglass this school year because the Southwestern complex is closing.

President Bush's drug czar praised Baltimore's efforts in fighting substance abuse during a visit yesterday that included a tour of a city treatment facility and a stop at a drug court session. John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, joined more than 75 community leaders, residents and politicians who discussed how federal, state and local governments can pool resources to fight the nation's drug problem. "People are fighting back. You can see lives change," Walters said.

Our drug policy should focus on harm reduction According to a recent Sun article on Baltimore's intensive anti-drug campaign, "Some experts say that temporary stepped-up enforcement in certain areas simply shifts crime from one part of the city to another" ("Intensive campaign by city police yields short-term success," Dec. 29). Does moving open-air drug markets from one neighborhood to the next constitute victory in the war on drugs? Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profits from drug trafficking.

Bonnie Holmes, a charter member of Annapolis' drug office who weathered three years of controversial changes and rose to become the drug czar, has resigned.Her decision to leave comes just a year after Eric Avery, the founding drug policy specialist, resigned over philosophical differences with Mayor Alfred A. Hopkins. The office was restructured under the Hopkins administration, a move applauded by some city leaders but criticized by others, who fear Annapolis' war on drugs is stagnating.

Since Michael M. Gimbel was fired last week from his job as Baltimore County's drug czar, scores of people have been calling, writing and circulating petitions in hopes that County Executive James T. Smith Jr. will reinstate Gimbel as head of the county's Bureau of Substance Abuse. Despite the outpouring of support from community activists and at least one elected official - Del. Emmett C. Burns Jr., a Baltimore County Democrat - it appears unlikely that Smith will intervene on Gimbel's behalf.