Federal officials will send the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy more than three-point-eight million dollars July 1st in the annual round of drug control grants. The state drug czar Gary Kendell says the amount was a little higher than what was expected, as he says over the last four years Iowa has received a 39-percent cut in the federal funding.
Kendell says a majority of the grant money will go to 22 drug task forces that are made up of a combination of several different local and county law enforcement departments. He says the federal funds make the task forces possible.
Kendell says Iowa wouldn’t have the multijurisdictional task forces it has without the federal funds. He says the state has one of the largest such programs in the country. Before he took the top drug fighting position, Kendell was a drug task force prosecutor. Kendell says that gives him personal experience in working with the task forces, and he calls them "truly are one of the most effective and efficient ways we can spend our drug control dollars." He says the local task forces combined with state efforts, give Iowa a multi-faceted approach to drug control.
Other grants will go to substance abuse prevention or treatment programs. The grant awards cities and programs are: the Boone School-Based Intervention Juvenile Services Project ($40,243); Buchanan County Rural Area Interdiction Detail Task Force ($69,727); Centerville South Central Iowa Drug Task Force ($189,000); Cerro Gordo County North Central Iowa Narcotics Task Force ($128,244); Clay County Iowa Great Lakes Task Force ($12,000); Clinton County Transition to Recovery ($23,118); Council Bluffs S.W. Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force ($74,831); Decorah Northeast Iowa Drug Task Force ($10,000); Dept. of Corrections-Anamosa Therapeutic Community ($238,252); Dept. of Justice Career Criminal & Drug Prosecution Support Task Force ($19,000); Dept. of Human Rights Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning Correctional Policy Research ($38,041); Dept. of Public Safety Division of Narcotics Enforcement Task Force ($465,097); Des Moines County Southeast Iowa Narcotics Task Force ($86,695); Dubuque County Dubuque Area Drug Task Force ($117,906); First Judicial District/DCS Dual Diagnosis Offender Treatment Project ($140,422); Iowa City Johnson County Multi-Agency Drug Task Force ($83,761); Keokuk Lee County Narcotics Task Force ($80,886); Kirkwood Community College Binge Drinking Reduction Project ($27,578); Marshall County Mid Iowa Drug Task Force ($112,496); Mason City Youth Leadership ($22,299); Muscatine County Muscatine County Drug Task Force ($85,427); Ottumwa Southeast Iowa Inter-Agency Drug Task Force ($171,455); Polk County Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force ($567,012); Scott County Scott County Drug Task Force ($54,997); Sioux City Tri-State Drug Task Force ($194,137); State Training-Eldora & Toledo High Intensity Residential Substance Abuse Treatment ($298,769); Story County Central Iowa Drug Task Force ($79,544); Washington County Washington/Louisa Narcotics Enforcement Team ($45,552); Waterloo Tri-County Drug Task Force ($283,173); Webster County Region V Drug Task Force ($39,250); Webster County Teen Intervene Program for Success ($32,720).