Pubdate: Sat, 30 Mar 2002 Source: Centre Daily Times (PA) Copyright: 2002 Nittany Printing and Publishing Co., Inc. Contact: http://www.centredaily.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/74 Author: Ted McKnight Note: Ted McKnight of Lock Haven is the Clinton County district attorney. Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n476/a09.html?10857 HEARTFELT THANKS FOR MIKE FISHER'S DRUG CRACKDOWN Defense attorney Phillip Masorti's column March 16 made several derogatory comments and insinuations about my county and the actions of Attorney General Mike Fisher in trying to help my county. I am the district attorney of Clinton County. I do not want big-time drug dealers in my county. I welcome the help of anyone -- private citizen, local police, state police, state Attorney General, federal agents, or the U.S. Attorney -- who can help us achieve that goal. To fight a $3 million drug ring using Clinton County as one of its areas of operation is beyond the scope of the resources we have available to us here. The allegations reflect how widespread geographically these activities were. Clearly, this is exactly the type of operation that must be subject to the tools and resources available to the state attorney general. I regret that Masorti has adopted the effete snobbery of the "it's just marijuana" crowd who have abandoned their roots. I would be surprised if his grandfather would not be totally embarrassed and disappointed by Masorti's characterization of his "roots" as being the "armpit" of Pennsylvania. As one who has elected to remain and fight to make my community better, let me assure Masorti and his ilk that I thank Mike Fisher from the bottom of my heart for not treating Lock Haven and the rest of Clinton County as the "armpit" of Pennsylvania. Masorti opines that Attorney General Fisher had never previously been to Lock Haven. I have worked hard and been successful in getting statewide candidates and office holders to come to Clinton County. Mike Fisher has been here in Clinton County no less than a dozen times, the first time in the mid-1980s and most recently a month ago. I know of no other statewide office holder or candidate in the history of the commonwealth who has been to Clinton County more frequently than Mike Fisher. Whether it was how well he knew Clinton County as a result of how often he has been here or simply the size and scope of this case that drew Mike Fisher's attention to this case, I don't care. I am just glad Mike Fisher got involved and stopped it. Masorti chose to ignore the cocaine that was involved. The "just marijuana" group always does. I will not. Those of us in the trenches fighting this fight find the use of alcohol, and then marijuana, and then the more addicting drugs such as cocaine, crack, Ecstacy, Oxycontin, and heroin is a pattern all to frequently followed by our youth. A $3 million drug business only exists if it has customers, many of whom are our youth. Again, thank you, Mike Fisher, for caring enough about our youth to do something about it. Thank you for not taking the "it's the armpit of Pennsylvania and forget them" approach. I welcome the help of anyone who cares about my county enough to send the message to the drug dealers who want to ruin the lives of the people in my county to stay out and don't spread your evil here. We are hurting economically because of a series of lost industries. We're fighting back. We don't need the help of drug dealers and those who defend their evil practices. Finally, Masorti complains that this was nothing more than a political exercise to get Mike Fisher free political advertising. Fisher won't have an election with an opponent for eight more months. Most surveys show that people historically don't pay attention to any election more than a week before Election Day. If that were Fisher's motivation, then his timing was terrible. On the other hand, Masorti is in a business, as was noted in that article. Drug dealers are potential clients. Masorti's column wasn't an unpaid advertisement, now was it? - --- MAP posted-by: Beth