Pubdate: Wed, 24 Apr 2002
Source: Post and Courier, The (SC)
Copyright: 2002 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Contact:   http://www.charleston.net/index.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567

TAKING BACK THE STREETS

America's inability to win its "War on Drugs" has prompted necessary, 
productive debate over the best long-term strategies for minimizing the 
plague of dope traffic. Many former drug warriors have learned the hard way 
that the military analogy is a poor fit for a social problem that offers no 
reasonable expectation of a final victory.

But for residents in communities where drug dealers run rampant, the ugly 
consequences of that blatant criminal conduct tend to obscure long-term 
theories advanced in the drug-policy debate. And those consequences demand 
short-term action to clean up dope-infested neighborhoods.

That demand is being heard loudly and clearly in North Charleston, where 
Mayor Keith Summey has wisely sought federal assistance to alleviate the 
ravages of illegal drugs in his city, explaining to reporter James Scott: 
"Until we are willing to recognize the problems, there will never be a 
solution. We in North Charleston recognized we had a drug problem."

That problem contributes to North Charles-ton's high crime rate - a rate 
that's tied to the scourge of illegal drugs in the city.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Asa Hutchinson outlined 
strategies to stem that scourge Monday night, telling an audience of North 
Charleston residents and business leaders that combining drug-law 
enforcement with prevention and treatment can limit and lower the number of 
substance abusers and addicts.

According to our report, Mr. Hutchinson, a former congressman from 
Arkansas, linked the drug menaces on the local and global levels: "What 
happens in North Charleston has a worldwide connection. It is a worldwide 
problem with a neighborhood solution."

That neighborhood solution is the focus of a three-day conference pairing 
local police with federal agents in an effort to take the streets back from 
the dope dealers. North Charleston, Allentown, Pa., and Portsmouth, Va., 
are the cities being served by a pilot program that seeks to lower both the 
supply and demand of illegal drugs through community cooperation with the 
authorities.

North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt aims to foster such cooperation - 
on a long-term basis - by sending officers into schools to help children 
with their reading. The officers also can help children understand that the 
police are their friends - and that drug abuse can ruin their lives.

Meanwhile, on the short-term enforcement level, running drug dealers out of 
neighborhoods is rarely a permanent solution. Those criminals, or others 
like them, have a bad habit of returning to service a lucrative market.

So be it. Run out one batch, then, when needed, run out the next.

Despite the limitations of such a predictable cycle, in North Charleston or 
anywhere else, it does at least provide temporary relief from the drug 
plague - and sends a welcome signal that law-abiding citizens, not criminal 
dope dealers, control their communities.
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