Pubdate: Wed, 03 Apr 2002
Source: Neshoba Democrat, The (MS)
Copyright: 2002 The Neshoba Democrat
Contact:  http://www.neshobademocrat.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1774

DRUG RAID: TYPICAL REPONSE TO DRUGS: INDIFFERENCE

Armed Compound A Wake-Up Call

A year-long investigation netted one of the biggest drug dealers in the 
state last week when local, state and federal officials raided a communal 
compound in rural Neshoba County where the suspects were armed to the hilt 
with automatic rifles, handguns and cash, more than $8,000 worth.

Law enforcement officials should be commended for their diligence, bravery 
and integrity and be encouraged to take other tough stances in a county 
long infested with illegal drug use that permeates to the highest levels of 
society.

The typical response in Neshoba County to drug users and dealers is denial 
or at best a muted indifference.

Let any poor fool get arrested on drug charges and everyone - his 
great-grandmother and her friends, too - steps forward to attest to the 
individual's integrity, some invoking their social status and roots here 
that pre-date dirt.

So what, we maintain, and wholeheartedly back the efforts of law 
enforcement at a time when many complain that felony drug charges are 
frequently remanded to lower courts and cases simply disappear - perhaps 
for lack of evidence, some have said, though.

These enablers pressure and otherwise harass law enforcement, prosecutors, 
judges and the newspaper, and they sometimes win - in the courts.

When law enforcement takes a tough stance and is given the tools to 
operate, much good can be accomplished for society.

Granted, for the casual and not so casual drug user, there are other 
options to incarceration that should be considered, such as treatment.

However, one user or dealer behind bars is one less user or dealer who will 
influence our children.

The world is a lot less innocent than it was even 20 years ago, and our 
young people, even the ones from the better families, face enormous 
challenges that previous generations did not.

Tough, no-nonsense law enforcement that has the backing of the public and 
the elected officials who fund them is one key to rooting out the evil of 
drugs, along with a judicial system that has no tolerance for any kind of 
wrongdoing.

Bootleggers in the late 1960s and 70s strode the red clay hills of this 
county spinning their evil, and eventually the good and decent people 
rejected them, hands down.

The evil of our age is the illicit drug use, a more sophisticated and 
subtle culture that is not always easily cracked, as Friday's pre-dawn raid 
indicates.

This raid should be a wake-up call: Drug dealers won't be tolerated in 
Neshoba County.
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MAP posted-by: Beth