3.3.2.1 Community Changes in Target Sites

Almost all target sites reported drug-related incidents such as arrests, drug enforcement operations, or deaths that kept the local drug problem in the news, such as a large cocaine arrest in Atlanta and the death of an 11-year-old boy that was related to his father's alleged drug trafficking; drug arrests involving teenagers in Boise that have heightened the community's awareness that they have a youth drug problem; and methamphetamine lab sting operations in Sioux City.

An informant from a Baltimore civic group reported a growing awareness that the city's heroin problem had spread to the suburbs. An elementary school teacher overdosed on heroin in a Baltimore suburb in January and a small number of heroin overdose deaths in non-urban and rural areas has increased concern about heroin because the deaths occurred "where you wouldn't expect overdose deaths." In Milwaukee, a former Government official was convicted of crack-cocaine possession; meanwhile, the city decriminalized marijuana, and in Portland, a large-scale marijuana arrest took place recently while the movement to decriminalize possession (the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act movement) was receiving considerable media attention.

There is a growing perception in many communities that the drug problem is not confined to poor, inner-city neighborhoods and that all youth are vulnerable. In fact, a veteran law enforcement officer in Atlanta lamented that youth are involved in drug trafficking and related violence to such an extent that individual events sometimes go unnoticed. The increasing use of methamphetamine and heroin by youth has been targeted by efforts such as the Methamphetamine Task Force Campaign in San Diego and the 19-point strategy to reduce heroin use in the State of Maryland announced by Lt. Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Atlanta's Stop the Violence Campaign, sponsored by a radio station very popular with youth, has an anti-drug component.

The Milton Creagh Enough is Enough campaign was the main drug-related activity in Boise. A major TV station and the mayor's office were heavily involved in promoting the campaign, which has a Christian approach. Materials were distributed to the schools, mass meetings were scheduled, and the local stadium was booked for weekend meetings of capacity crowds.

The Creagh campaign was coordinated with Promise Keepers, who provided speakers. The Creagh campaign has a policy of not allowing its efforts to be subordinated to other prevention efforts, so it negotiated to have its name displayed in the most prominent positions on TV and on billboards. The TV station general manager had begun to use the phrase "Drug-Free Idaho" but not in conjunction with the ONDCP Media Campaign ads.

Not everyone in the community was happy with the emphasis on the Creagh campaign. They saw it as a short-term phenomenon that siphoned money from more substantive efforts. The schools were contracting with Creagh instead of spending their money on ongoing prevention efforts. One informant who owned a billboard business with 3,000 billboards statewide and 350 in the city reported that 10 billboards were paid for by the ONDCP Media Campaign and 60 were paid for by Creagh.

At the intermediate target site visits, only limited changes were observed with regard to drug-related issues. The followup site visits being made at the completion of the Phase I Campaign will monitor any community changes, which will be discussed in the final report for Phase I.