By Tom Weber, KWMU
St. Louis – St. Louis area leaders talked drugs with the White House's point man on the subject Thursday.
John Walters, the so-called drug czar, is touring the nation's 25 biggest cities to discuss more cooperation.
He says he's trying to get the federal government more involved in coordinating efforts between regions and cities.
"If we're going to make the drug problem in the country get smaller, we have to make it get smaller in our major cities because they are 40 to 80 percent of the addiction, use and distribution problem," Walters said. "We can't ignore the rest of the country, but we have to be able to work more effectively with our major cities."
Walters says the feds have too often in the past just given drug prevention money to cities and states without tying efforts together.