Pubdate: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 Source: Standard, The (FL) Copyright: 2006 Baker County Standard, Inc. Contact: http://www.bcstandard.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4338 Author: Sheriff Dobie Conner CHARLTON REPORT Last Week Was a Very Special Week for All Law Enforcement and Our Fight Against the Flow of Illegal Drugs into Our Country. Each year we have our red ribbon week in recognition of a federal agent who was tortured and killed. The agent was working under cover on a large drug artel that was shipping illegal drugs into our country. The drug cartel found our who he was and as a result of his knowledge of their illegal activity they killed him. The red ribbon week was started to recognize the agents and also a special time set aside to visit our schools in an effort to keep our kids off of illegal drugs. We focus on our grammar school kids who are at the age in life that we may be successful in teaching them not to use illegal drugs. We need to teach them the dangers of using illegal drugs. We had a helicopter from the state of Georgia drug RAID unit. The helicopter and pilot are assigned to fight the battle on illegal drugs. The pilot explained to the kids about his duties and the type of work he does. The kids got a close look at the helicopter. We also had 13 K-9 units from Florida and Georgia law enforcement agencies. These dogs are specially trained to sniff our illegal drugs. The students were shown the obedience training results for each dog as well as the special training the dogs have to protect their handler and partner. The students also got to see how the dogs are trained to catch a person who is fleeing from the police. Another drug program they I feel is very important and helpful to our kids is our DARE program. This program has been in place for many years. This program was supported with funds form the state government. Those funds were stopped about 2 years ago because of the cost. The powers to be think it is not worth the effort or the expense. A new program was started by the Georgia Sheriff's Association because we felt that the DARE program was well worth the time and expense. Each Georgia county now has their own DARE officer and program. Sgt. Joey Chancey is our county DARE officer. Sgt. Chancey has completed the DARE program guidelines and is in his second year of teaching the 5th grades about the dangers of illegal drugs and how to stay drug free. Our Charlton County commissioners support the DARE program. Our teachers in each school also support the DARE program. Each school always supports our red ribbon week by letting us come into their school and are always ready and willing to assist in any way they can. A number of local people and businesses make donations for each program each year. Without all of everyone's help these programs would not be successful. Last Thursday after we had visited our schools with the drug dogs, we held a drivers license and safety check on U.S. 1 South of Folkston. As a result of the check 14 people were arrested for drug violations. Those arrested were; [remainder of article redacted] - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine