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      Alexandria Drug Crisis Described
      No Streets Are Safe, City Officials Told
      [FINAL Edition]



      The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext) - Washington, D.C. 
      Author:DeNeen L. Brown
      Date:Nov 14, 1989
      Start Page:d.04
      Section:METRO
      Text Word Count:447



       Full Text (447 words)



      Copyright The Washington Post Company Nov 14, 1989
      There were some success stories at last night's meeting called by 
      Alexandria Mayor James P. Moran Jr. to assess local anti-drug efforts. One 
      was about the neighbors on North Alfred Street who gather outdoors every 
      Friday night to reclaim the area from drug dealers.
      But Moran and other city officials who came to the meeting at City Hall 
      heard many more negative accounts.
      "Don't go home thinking we have success. We have only failures," Trig 
      Johnson declared. Johnson, who lives in the city's Parker Gray area, told 
      of watching two girls in the neighborhood grow up and turn into drug 
      dealers.
      The meeting drew about 200 citizens. Some said they can't sleep at night 
      because of the shouts and occasional shooting accompanying drug dealing in 
      their neighborhoods.
      Some said no streets were safe from the infection of drugs.
      The officials heard of women selling food stamps at half price for cash to 
      buy drugs while they allow their children to go hungry. They heard of a 
      grandmother who raised a child born to a crack-addicted mother.
      "Tapping the problem of drugs is costing us a great deal of money," City 
      Manager Vola Lawson told the group. "By any definition there is a drug 
      crisis in this city."
      Alexandria's spending on anti-drug efforts rose 66 percent over the last 
      two years to the current year's $28.4 million, which includes the entire 
      police budget of $12.5 million. About $19 million of the total is city 
      money, according to city officials.
      Alexandria has seen an explosion in its drug trade over the last two years 
      with the introduction of the virulent crack form of cocaine. Just a few 
      blocks from the Old Town tourist attractions are some of the city's worst 
      drug-plagued neighborhoods.
      From January through September, there were more than 1,400 drug-related 
      arrests, which have impacted the city's courts, probation offices, social 
      services, and its jail. Yesterday the city's jail had 460 inmates, about 
      130 over capacity. It has housed as many as 550.
      Some speakers at last night's forum said the numbers of arrests, the 
      numbers of people in jail, the amount of money spent cannot be measures of 
      success.
      Some called for an organized effort among residential groups to fight drug 
      dealing on the blocks. Otherwise, one resident said, pushing the dealers 
      from one block to the next is not a solution.
      "It's kind of like when you live in a row house and you spray for roaches 
      and you don't tell your neighbors on either side," said Elsie 
      Taylor-Jordan, a resident in Lynhaven, one of the city's neighborhoods 
      targeted for drug enforcement.
      A second town meeting on the subject of drugs was set for Jan. 17.
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