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1992.10.14 :  Grants --  "Weed and Seed" Program

Contact: Tony Sims (301)-443-5052
October 14, 1992

     HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today announced more
than $2 million in special grant awards to increase alcohol and
other drug abuse prevention and treatment resources in
neighborhoods affected by the recent civil disturbances in Los
Angeles.  The grants are part of President Bush's "Weed and Seed"
program aimed at reducing crime and improving health and social
services in high-risk areas of the nation's cities. 
       The Watts Health Foundation will receive approximately
$1.2 million from the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention,
which will be used for residential treatment and prevention
services for drug abusing mothers and their children.  Another $1
million will be  awarded by the Office for Treatment Improvement
to expand and enhance alcohol and drug abuse treatment services
for adolescents in the South Central and Koreatown areas of Los
Angeles who are involved in the criminal justice system. 
       "We are committed to ensuring a better quality of life for
the citizens of Los Angeles, and these grants will help in
restoring healthy lives to those women, children and adolescents
who continue to have difficult problems with alcohol and other
drug use," Secretary Sullivan said.
       "Drug treatment and prevention services must be expanded
in our nation's inner cities to fight the devastation of illegal
drug use and addiction," said Governor Bob Martinez, director of
the White 

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House Office of National Drug Control Policy.  "The people of Los
Angeles will benefit greatly from these new resources that will
focus on preventing drug use and the recovery of addicts."
       Operation Weed and Seed is a community-based,
comprehensive, multi-agency approach to combating violent crime,
drug use and gang activity in high-crime neighborhoods.  The goal
of the program is to weed out crime in targeted neighborhoods and
then seed those sites with a wide range of social service
programs to promote healthy lives and community development.
       Total HHS assistance to Los Angeles under the "Weed and
Seed" program this year comes to some $7 million.
       "This funding is part of a total crisis assistance package
that will help rebuild the social and community fabric of Los
Angeles," said James Mason, M.D., HHS assistant secretary for
health and head of the U.S. Public Health Service.  "We believe
that we can help resolve some of the pressing needs of this city
by expanding its alcohol and drug abuse prevention and treatment
services in a way which effectively links these services with
other existing social, educational and vocational programs."
       Federal riot-related assistance totals $1.2 billion.

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