I am Father Bryan Jones, Executive Vice-President of the United Neighborhood Organization and Chairperson of the UNO Anti-Drug Committee. UNO is a church based organization representing 93,000 families on the Eastside of Los Angeles. UNO and its sister organization, the South Central Organizing Committee (SCOC) have spearhead the fight against drugs in L.A. over the past two years by working in concert with County and State officials to pass tough anti-drug legislation and fund programs that offer our youth an alternative to the street drug culture.

The international drug trade has indeed turned our region into the City of the living dead. In the first nine months of this year, the Los Angeles Police and Sheriff Departments have made over 42,000 drug arrests. Hundreds of young people die each year as street gangs turn our neighborhoods into battle zones, as the fight for control of the new drug markets escalate.

Our break

1 law enforcement resources have been stretched beyond the point, and to date the federal response has been woefully inadequate. Just three statistics drive home this point.

1. In the New York City office of the U.S. Attorney, there are
225 prosecutors. They serve 13 million people. For the seven
county Central California office which covers L.A., there are
only 65 prosecutors.

2. Los Angeles has 100

have 300.

120 DEA agents. Miami and New York each

3. Over the past five years, there has been a 30% decrease in the number of beds available for drug rehabilitation in Los Angeles due in part to federal cutbacks.

Today neede

1.

and SCOC call upon this Committee to pursue two desperately
ounterattacks to the City of the Living Dead.

eral funding must continue to be increased. The $1.7 billion
il signed into law this week is not enough. It must be considered
the first downpayment in a long-term financial commitment if this
war is to be won.

2. A Federal Drug Audit should be conducted by the General Accounting Office to determine the following:

a. The effectiveness of Federal Agency and Block Grant funded anti-drug programs.

b. If federal anti-drug resources are being allocated across the country according to the needs of a given region.

c. Objective criteria for funding and allocation.

Father Bryan Jones testimony

House Special Committee on Narcotics

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Increased long-term funding and a Federal Drug Audit can generate a fair and effective national drug strategy.

Los Angeles does not want to benefit at another region's expense. Southern California is in its present crisis in part from the lack of such a coordinated national drug strategy. For example the isolated Federal crackdown in South Florida has shifted smuggling routes through Mexico into California.

What is needed is not to continue to shift pieces on a board with too few players, but a coordinated National attack on drugs with the money, personnel, and determination needed to succeed.

END

of the problem. New research shows potentially serious brain complications stemming from habitual marijuana use. We now know that THC in marijuana may reduce the density of a human's brain cells by 20%.

Regarding cocaine, in L.A. County between 1982 and 1985 there was a 172% increase in cocaine-related deaths from 46 to 125. There was more than a 300% increase in cocaine-related medical problems requiring emergency hospital care

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from 395 in 1982 to 1,635 in 1985. And while it is true

that some do die a sudden death from ingesting a single large cocaine dose,

we recently discovered that others die a slow death through the repeated use of small amounts of cocaine even if the amount was initially safe and even

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if the dosage is not increased over time. Even more frightening, we now know that chronic use of small doses of cocaine might cause lethal brain seizures even when the drug is not being ingested. We should expect the health dangers of cocaine to only increase with the improved quality of the drug some "rock" cocaine is 90% pure.

As for heroin, between 1983 and 1985, the number of deaths from heroin overdoses in L.A. County rose from 71 to 204, almost a 190% increase. Much of this increase is due to a relatively new kind of heroin called "black tar." Black tar did not appear in L.A. County until 1982. Unbeknownst to the first-time user and even to the addict, "black tar" is much more potent than the brown heroin commonly taken in the past. The purity level of black tar ranges from 40% to as high as 70%.

The Mayor's Efforts

Within the City of Los Angeles

These alarming figures confirm that drug abuse has reached epidemic proportions in this State and poses a clear and present danger to our future.