District Attorney Dewey Hudson says he wants to make sure last week's moonshine and marijuana bust of Willie Nelson's band members was above board.

Longtime Nelson bass player Dan Edward "Bee" Spears, 60, of Franklin, Tenn., and five other members of the band were cited with possession of non-tax-paid alcohol. Two of them were also cited with marijuana possession.

The citations came just minutes before the band was set to take the stage Jan. 28 at the Duplin County Events Center on Fairgrounds Drive in Kenansville. The performance was subsequently canceled.

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Methadone Treatments Can Be A Slippery Slope

Editor's Note: This article is the third in a series looking at the growing prescription drug problem in Onslow County.

Workers at a local methadone clinic say they want to dispel the myth that they are legalized drug dealers.

The Jacksonville Treatment Center on Bell Fork Road offers opiate addicts a chance to function normally in society, said Melissa Nobles, a counselor at the clinic.

Retired Marine Sgt. Major David Evans, a clinic case manager, said much of the stigma surrounding methadone clinics comes from the notion that most of the patients are heroin junkies receiving a fix.

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Jacksonville Police Say Tracking Down Prescription Drug's Source Is Difficult

When it comes to the abuse of prescription drugs in Jacksonville, police say OxiContin is by far the local favorite. Even though Sgt. Jason Bettis, a detective with the Jacksonville Police Department, has seen people hooked on everything from Ibuprofen to cough medicine, he said most pill-poppers eventually gravitate toward OxiContin.

The brand name painkiller, known on the street as "Oxycotton" or simply "Oxy," contains a timed-release formula of oxycodone, a synthetic opiate. The pill available by prescription only is used to treat pain when around-the-clock relief is needed for an extended period of time, according to information from the manufacturer, Purdue Pharma L.P.People get around the timed-release of the drug by chewing up the pills and rubbing the powder on their gums, police said.Since the drug is obtained legally and then diverted onto the streets, it is hard for law enforcement to be proactive in combating its abuse, Bettis said.

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There is never a shortage of prescription pills on the street in Onslow County.While cocaine and marijuana sources run dry from time to time, the supply of prescription pills seems endless, said narcotics officers with the Onslow County Sheriff's and Holly Ridge Police departments. "Drugs are about supply and demand, but with pills, the supply is so great there is never a shortage of them," Holly Ridge Police Chief John Maiorano said. "The most popular are the opiates."Opiates, derived from opium poppies, are prescribed mainly as pain killers, OxyContin being the most recognized brand name available, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. And there has been an upswing in the number of pain pills available on the street in Onslow County recently, Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland said. Narcotics detectives with the Sheriff's Department explained that the source of prescription pills has them constantly changing enforcement tactics. "There is no legitimate source of cocaine, but prescription pills are easily obtained legally," a Sheriff's sergeant in the narcotics division told The Daily News. His name is withheld from publication because he frequently works undercover operations.

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A properly obtained and executed search warrant can crack even the toughest of cases, police say.

When a police officer has a strong belief physical evidence can be found at a certain location, the officer fills out a search warrant and presents it to a judge for approval, said Randy Nordstrom, a detective with Jacksonville Police Department.

He and Capt. Gary Dixon detailed a home invasion where detectives had found the firearm used in the robbery. They discovered a tiny drop of blood in the handgrip of the pistol.

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An undercover Onslow County deputy accidentally fired a single round from his .45-caliber handgun during a drug raid Friday at a home on Oxford Drive, Sheriff Ed Brown said.

"Because drug dealers are known to be armed, narcotic agents are required to be ready to respond immediately," Brown said. "The first agent entering the residence had his handgun drawn and pointing upward. During the entry process that agent bumped his arm on something causing his (weapon) to discharge one time."

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With Mexican authorities targeting suppliers south of the border and U.S. agencies stopping smugglers at sea, the flow of cocaine into America is being squeezed, according to federal officials.

But area police say cocaine is still readily available to those who know where to look.

"End users can still buy cocaine in Onslow County," said Capt. Rick Sutherland of the Onslow County Sheriff's Department. "They may have to go to more than one dealer to find it, but it is out there."

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SURF CITY - Just the possibility of a crackdown on the sale of drug paraphernalia was enough for most Surf City merchants to pack up their pipes and stow their bongs.

One popular gift shop in downtown Surf City had more than 25 glass-blown decorative pipes for sale on Sept. 20, but by Friday all those pipes had been removed from the shelf.

And that seems to be the trend.

Gift shops in Surf City , for the most part, have already boxed up, trashed or returned the pipes that would be considered illegal to sell under the proposed town ordinance.

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