The Nation - News from April 10, 1989

Federal drug chief William J. Bennett will unveil a landmark plan today to combat escalating violence in the nation’s capital that he says will be a “test case” of how the government can be helpful in plotting anti-drug strategies in other parts of the country. Major elements of the plan include increasing court personnel to handle a backlog of drug cases and providing more jail space, federal officials said. Bennett, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said he planned to designate the district as the nation’s first “high-intensity drug trafficking area.” Such a designation, established by the anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, would enable Bennett to muster federal funds and manpower to attack narcotic-related violence in the district. Last year, the district had a record 372 homicides and the nation’s highest murder rate.