Local News in Brief : Drug Abuse Study Ends

The Los Angeles County Task Force on Drug Abuse has wrapped up a yearlong study into the problems of alcohol and drug abuse with a list of recommendations aimed at better coordinating efforts to combat the problem.

After lauding the committee’s work, the Board of Supervisors adopted the 32 recommendations, which included suggestions that school boards establish comprehensive drug abuse programs, that communications between the courts and the school systems be improved and that the idea of separate criminal courts specializing in drug cases be examined.

The 21-member committee, chaired by Superior Court Judge David Horowitz, was composed of representatives from state, local and federal law enforcement as well as officials from county health and probation deapartments, judges and other representatives. Their findings were unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday and praised by Sheriff Sherman Block and U.S. Atty. Raymond Bonner.