The governor’s office is doling out about five-Million dollars in drug-prevention money. Dale Woolery of the Office of Drug Control Policy says the state hands over the federal money to local agencies that tackle drugs and violent crime. He says drug and violent-crime issues are often connected, and about 70-percent of the money goes to local agencies for enforcement, treatment and prevention projects, and the rest goes to state agencies to do that, too. Woolery says the grant application process is competitive and merit-based.Those who work in the field review the grant applications, and look at need — and the likelihood that a plan may work. Some of the funding requests are for one-time programs, some for projects that are ongoing. A good number of them are new projects, and he says part of the purpose of the grants is to be “seed money” to test what might be the next successful program, knowing that not all work. One of their biggest hopes is to find what’s effective in fighting meth. Woolery says one program that’s proved its effectiveness is the drug-fighting law-enforcement task force. About 60-percent of the drug funds go to multi-jurisdictional task forces, which combine law-enforcement agencies from different cities, counties, and even states since “the drug trade doesn’t know boundaries,” according to Woolery.
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