The director of the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy visited the Bronx on June 7 to officially launch a new nationwide anti-drug youth campaign.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, who serves in the Obama administration as the 6th ever “drug czar,” went on a tour, visiting a nearby community garden and stopping off at one of the Bronx’s most notorious drug-ridden areas—a neighborhood in Fordham-Bedford Park.

There, he met with Father John Jenik, of Our Lady of Refuge Church at East 196th Street, who has been fighting crime and drug activity in the parish’s surrounding neighborhood for decades.

Kerlikowske’s trip was part of a greater, nationwide campaign from his office aimed to keep teenagers away from drugs. Dubbed the “Influence Project,” its goal is to engage young people in talking about the positive and negative pressures that influence their behavior. He met with students from the Mary Mitchell Center in Crotona and the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club to talk about what keeps them drug-free.

“I heard stories about how important their parents were to them, in guiding them,” Kerlikowske said. “I heard stories about how they felt a true responsibility for their younger siblings to make sure they didn’t get involved in drugs.”

“You have to have positive people around you,” agreed 17-year-old Michael Quiles, who participated in the project. “You pick the good ones. If you think they’re not, push them to the side.”

The Influence Project will hold similar events this month in Portland, Ore., and Milwaukee, Wis., and launch a massive media campaign, including a series of local and national television commercials and an interactive website.

“I don’t think it could be more direct and more real and more honest,” Kerlikowske said. “It engages teens, and more importantly, they really engage us.”

Local leaders say drug problems in the area are still as prevalent as ever.

“You walk through the neighborhood and you see instances where you’re [openly asked to buy drugs],” said John Garcia, executive director of Fordham-Bedford Children’s Services, a nonprofit on Bainbridge Avenue.

Garcia described other instances where children are robbed of their backpacks walking home from school.

Staff at the Mary Mitchell Center in Crotona have also seen their share of drug-related violence. They’ve been in touch with Kerlikowske’s office since last November, when several drug-related shootings took place nearby within a short period of time.

Since then, Mary Mitchell Center staff and other community leaders have stepped up their efforts to draw citywide and national attention to the issues of drug and youth violence that plague many low-income neighborhoods.

“In other neighborhoods, this would not be tolerated,” Garcia said. “Why is it tolerated in our neighborhoods?”