Pubdate: Fri, 24 Nov 2006
Source: Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)
Copyright: 2006 The Herald-Sun
Contact:  http://www.herald-sun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?228 (Paraphernalia)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

EDITORIAL: WHITLEY'S WORTHY CRUSADE

The Rev. Melvin Whitley is an activist who does not set his sights low.

Quickly successful in his campaign to rid the streets of an innocent- 
looking but insidious product called "love roses" in Durham, Whitley  
is now broadening his campaign.

He hopes to persuade the N. C. General Assembly to curtail sales of  
the product statewide. He says freshman local legislator Larry Hall  
has agreed to introduce the legislation when the General Assembly  
convenes next year.

Whitley, an organizer for the group A New East Durham, and fellow  
activist and gadfly Bill Anderson first focused public attention on  
the love roses last summer.

The love rose is a small glass tube with a paper rose inside it, sold  
at convenience stores ostensibly (and perhaps this was its original  
intent) as a small, impetuous romantic gift.

But crack cocaine users know that the glass vial can be quickly and  
easily converted to a crack pipe, a reason the geegaws sell briskly  
to customers with few if any romantic leanings.

The pipes have prompted neighborhood protests and Federal Drug  
Administration seizures in other cities in recent years.

Whitley and his allies were fed up with the pipes permeating their  
neighborhoods, and quickly persuaded the City Council to impose a  
$500 fine on stores that sell them.

"I think while some people say it's a small step, it will send the  
message that Durham is closed for business to drug users," said  
councilman Thomas Stith, adding that it shows "Durham will not stand  
for this."

That's a message that can't be delivered too strongly.

We applaud Whitley's effort to extend that message across the state.

Durham is too often unfairly stereotyped by our fellow North  
Carolinians -- especially elsewhere in the Triangle -- as a crime- 
plagued city. It is heartening to think that Whitley's crusade may  
remind folks that our spirit of civic activism can model crime- 
fighting moves for other communities.
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