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Former U.S. attorney says region losing war against drugs
Matthew Lane | Kingsport Times-News | February 13, 2006

JOHNSON CITY - Prosecutors and law enforcement officials are winning battles against major drug organizations in Northeast Tennessee, but the government is obviously losing the war against drugs in our region, a former U.S. attorney said recently.

Dan Smith worked in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the past 13 years attached to the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and dealt primarily with seeking out and dismantling large illegal drug organizations. Though his office was in Johnson City, Smith's jurisdiction included the 10 counties of Northeast Tennessee.

Over the past 13 years, Smith estimated he prosecuted around 700 defendants from Northeast Tennessee.

"The cases, unfortunately, have been pretty constant," Smith said. "I don't know what the problem is except to say there has got to be - based on my 13 years experience in Northeast Tennessee - a whole hell of a lot of users out there. We have dismantled some big organizations, and about the time we get one there's another one in its place.

"We're winning all of the battles, but obviously we're losing the war."

Smith, 58, spent 21 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before going to work for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Beaumont, Texas, in 1991. After 18 months in Texas, Smith said he transferred to Johnson City in January 1993. After 13 years on the job, Smith left the U.S. Attorney's Office on Jan. 30 and said he intends to open up a private law practice in Johnson City by the first of March.

Smith has handled numerous marijuana and cocaine cases over the past 13 years.

"I can't even tell you how many big cocaine cases we've had," Smith said.

"We've done a huge crack cocaine conspiracy over the last two or three years where we indicted 80 people from Burlington, North Carolina," he said.

Another large cocaine and marijuana case, called Final Harvest, dealt with a group of Hispanics from Morristown.

"They were dealing with massive amounts of cocaine and marijuana - I'm talking about hundreds of kilos of cocaine and thousands of pounds of marijuana," Smith said. "We ended up prosecuting over 80 or 90 people in that particular case."

Smith said there is not a typical person that operates a large drug organization - the crime crosses all racial and socioeconomic patterns.

The drugs distributed by the organizations, however, do run fairly consistent, Smith said.

"Cocaine and marijuana are the big ones. We have seen an increase in crack cocaine over the last few yeas and had a couple of heroin cases, but that's unusual," Smith said. "Methamphetamine is becoming an issue. When I first got here it was not, but it's certainly something that's growing."

Smith said he did have one case involving LSD, but said that drug was just a passing fad and has essentially been replaced with Ecstasy. Heroin is also a rare drug found among the organizations, due to the difficultly of obtaining the narcotic.

"One gram of cocaine sells for $40 on the street. A tenth of a gram of heroin is $50," Smith said.

And the organizations are well-organized, with people having clearly defined roles in the illegal drug trade, Smith said.

"They've got individuals with particular and specific roles they play, whether it's the mule taking something somewhere or somebody transporting the money or helping to store or cut up and distribute the drugs," Smith said. "All of those things are clearly identified within the organizations."

When someone is sentenced to prison in the federal system, there is no parole. If someone is sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling cocaine, then that person serves every day of the sentence.

Though it's hard to measure the gain prosecutors are making on the large drug organizations in Northeast Tennessee, harsh sentences in the federal system are a deterrent, Smith said.

"Those are 700 people that are not in the business anymore. There's a clear sense of satisfaction with what we've done," Smith said. " I think that we would be more saturated than we are. We catch 700 people in 13 years, but without that deterrence we may have caught 1,500 or 2,000, so I think it does keep some people from pursuing it.

"And you've got to think of the mentality too. These bigger drug dealers, they think they're smarter than we are. They just don't think they're going to get caught."

Another factor among drug dealers is there's big money in it, Smith said.

"We did a two-pound meth reverse about a month or two ago, and the alleged drug dealer showed up with $48,000 cash in their pocket," he said.

Some people have argued that illegal drugs should be made legal, especially marijuana. Smith said he thinks this would send the wrong message to the next generation.

"It's like we'd be throwing up our hands and saying there's nothing we can do about. I don't think that's the right thing to do," he said. "I think it's too late for the 30- and 40-year-olds. I think we've got to start with an education program as we've done with tobacco and alcohol and convince them. We've got to saturate, in my opinion, the young kids that this just absolutely is destructive behavior and hope that over time it works."

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Dennis

I live in the Dallas Fort Worth area and know several younger adults and teenagers. The stories they tell me about raves, parties and teenage life in general indicate that drugs are everywhere and teenagers use them all the time indiscriminately.

The war on drugs is over former DA. You just need to accept it and move toward a policy of treatment for those with a serious addiction as opposed to the inhumane policy of locking up half of Society. Sure, you can bust people 24/7, because it's like shooting fish in a barrel with a shotgun. One would hope you would be ashamed of this sadistic pursuit at some point in your career. By the way, why did you quit?

Cassius

I would have to agree with Dennis. It wasn't that long ago that I was a teenager, and the last rave I went to was probably about 2 years ago. Kids these days (for the most part) completely ignore the government propaganda machines and reefer madness, because they know they have been lied to over and over again. As far as getting their information about drugs, kids only trust two parties: their peers, and their dealers.

Now, if you get 'em young, I guess it might work. The gov't could raise a whole new generation of "abstinence kids". But they've tried that before, hell they've been trying it for 2006-1937 = 69 years. It hasn't worked so far.

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PotShot

Or, more likely, due the idea that not many people seek out heroin. I think, in this regard, people are educated to the notion that, as far as drug use goes, heroin is a pretty bad choice.

It is too bad that the wildly popular drugs--cannabis and cocaine--are illegal, and thusly serve as a framework to support the rest of the black market.

Buzzby

It's a guerilla war and the "battles" they're winning are only skirmishes with the small percentage of the "cells" they can identify. As long as prohibition makes the profit margins on drugs so astronomically high, anyone they take out of the game will be immediately replaced. It's a seller's market.

Case in point:If they're making "gains", why are they "losing the war"? It's obvious that harsh sentences are not a deterrent. People are standing in line waiting to make the big bucks.


That sounds like a lot of speculation to me. This guy needs a course in remedial economics. It doesn't matter if some people are deterred from getting into the business. There will always be plenty of people willing to take risks to make a big score. The bigger the risk, the higher the prices, the more attractive the business.


The 9-out-of-10 who don't get caught probably are smarter. Criminals who end up in jail are the ones who aren't very good at their jobs. It's like the way predators improve their prey. The cops take out the incompetent, leaving the smart ones to carry on.


He admits that they're "losing the war" but insists on pursuing the same strategy that got them in that position. There are things to do to reduce drug abuse other than throwing people in jail, a strategy doomed to failure by the nature of economics.


He started out with the right idea: education. Then he blew it by promoting the idea that you can accomplish a reduction in drug abuse by lying to children about drugs. They don't teach kids that using alcohol is "just absolutely destructive behavior". They teach them that abusing alcohol is destructive behavior. Human beings have an innate need to alter their consciousness. Rather than telling people that they can't do it they should be teaching them how to do it wisely.

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PotShot

Right On!

The Drug-Warriors have so many conflicting thoughts it is a wonder they are able to tie their shoes in the morning...

Cassius

The "double-think" (read 1984 if you haven't heard the term) has been going on for generations, so it's second nature to them. They don't even see the contradictions in their statements that are a mere few words or phrases apart.

dedbr

a great article for our cause here. Here's a man who has dedicated his life to our country, and he's admitting his own frustration at the failure of America's drug war. This is the man we need to testify in congress about the frustration he felt and the people who step up just as fast as he could knock them down.

Here's a man who really believes in what he's done, has committed his life to the defeat of the drug problem, and admit's it's hopeless. Doesn't really get much better than that, huh?

( Dedbr rides around on his mini tricycle, balloons trailing behind....)

Maybe he retired because he realized he had wasted his whole life on a lost cause, huh?

The Deddy

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RL in IL

Unfortunately cocaine is a concentrated drug that can kill people. Who hasn't known someone who screwed their lives up really bad, or died because of cocaine abuse?

It is the reason the soft drink Coca-Cola exists.

I think cocaine is also regarded in general as a bad choice as far as drug use goes, even if it is "popular". I'm sure most, if not all, marijuana users who come to this website would agree with that, whether they've had experience with it or not.

RL in IL

There is an education gap when it comes to drug education.

The drugs alcohol and tobacco both are legal, yet, there are no instructions that come with it to describe how to use it safely.

A box of cigarettes never explain how to use the product safely to reduce harm.

A bottle of alcohol never explains anything about how much alcohol could be fatal to the purchaser.

Tobacco and alcohol neither contain instructions on how to most safely use them at point of purchase or on the label -

And tobacco and alcohol are exempt from listing ingredients that may be mixed in.

Why is there such a discrepancy?


If marijuana were legalized outright, would the same sort of education gap of the sort I am referring continue to exist?