WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — The White House “drug czar” made a special visit to Washington Heights Thursday, meeting with community leaders at an event hosted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske, who famously called for a less bellicose framing of the so-called “War on Drugs” in 2009, said he was eager to learn from WaHi organizers, hailing their progress in the neighborhood over the past few decades.
“We have made huge strides in this community,” Kerlikowske told the panel of politicians, researchers and community leaders. “It’s a gift to the administration for all of you to be here [so] that we can actually learn — not only about what you’re doing but how we can be more helpful.”
The 33rd and the 34th Police Precincts, which represent Washington Heights and Inwood, saw 60 and 52 percent reductions in drug arrests between 2000 and 2010, DA Cyrus Vance noted at the meeting.
The combined 33rd and 34th precincts ranked as the 24th safest neighborhood of 69 across the five boroughs in DNAinfo.com's recently released Crime & Safety Report, and 4th safest in Manhattan.
While Vance credited the efforts of local police for the turn-around, he also insisted “enforcement alone is not the answer.”
“It’s prevention, it’s education, it’s treatment,” the DA said.
Like Vance, several of the panelists emphasized the need for youth opportunies to provide an alternative to the drug trade for at-risk kids.
“If we’re going to turn around and say, ‘Just say no,’ [we’ve got to ask] ‘Well, what are we offering these students?’” commented Dr. Norbert Sander, executive director of The Armory Foundation, which hosted the panel at its track and field facility in Washington Heights.
Despite the improvements in drug-related crime statistics, Sander warned that there was still much work to be done in the neighborhood.
“In New York City, out of 465,000 high school students only 40,000 are in sports — less than 8 percent,” Sander noted, adding there was not a single track team in Washington Heights. “It’s a disgraceful number.”
Angelo Ortiz, of Inwood Community Services, worried that prevention efforts were likely to get even worse in the face of funding cuts.
“What’s gonna happen 10, 15, 20 years from now, when … thousands of after school spots are about to get slashed?” Ortiz asked.
In addition to youth prevention strategies, some panelists advocated the use of harm-reduction tactics, encouraging Kerlikowske to push for national adoption of policies that are already in effect in New York.
Taeko Frost, a program director for the Washington Heights Corner Project — a needle exchange and outreach center on Wadsworth Avenue — said she’d been able to save numerous addicts from opioid overdoses using a medication called Naloxone, which can only be administered by physicians in other states.
She also pointed to a Good Samaritan law, recently signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, that allows people to call 911 in the event of drug or alcohol overdose without fear of being prosecuted for possession.
In addition to discussing strategies for fighting illicit drug use, the panel also addressed the problem of prescription drug abuse, which they said is on the rise in Upper Manhattan and across the city.
Despite the panel’s heavy focus on public health, more than a dozen protestors gathered outside the Armory to protest what they view as overly aggressive drug enforcement policies.
Citing racial disparities in drug arrests and high rates of recidivism among drug offenders, the protestors said Kerlikowske and the Obama administration were falling short on their promises of reform.
“[Kerlikowske] is saying the drug war is over,” said Fred Wright of VOCAL NY, which helped organize the protest. “But it’s still going on in this neighborhood.”
“If there’s a public health conversation going on, it needs to include the problems that are being caused by law enforcement,” Wright added.
DNAinfo.com's groundbreaking Crime & Safety Report can be viewed here.
