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Law Enforcement Waging Drug War on Two Fronts
Becky Campbell | Kingsport Times News | 08/14/06

Solving the drug problem is no easy task. Some experts even say it's nearly impossible.

But that isn't stopping local law enforcement officers from waging the battle every day on two fronts: enforcement and education.

On the education front, District Attorney General Greeley Wells said getting to kids early in their life is important.

Wells' office is involved in a statewide education presentation for middle and high school students that addresses one of the worst drugs in America's history - methamphetamine.

The "Meth Destroys" presentation includes a gripping video featuring short yet powerful messages from four recovering meth addicts who speak frankly about the drug's effect on them, their family and their lives. The interviews are interspersed with facts and statistics, photographs and visual effects that paint a clear picture of the drug's dangers.

For example, the video refers to meth as a "a witches brew of poisons you wouldn't even consider opening up and swallowing."

And during the presentation, Wells tells students "we're here because methamphetamine is undoubtedly the most dangerous drug this country has ever run across."

Other educational programs in local schools include DARE and DREAM, a program developed by the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office that also teaches kids about anger management.

On the law enforcement side of the solutions equation is a never-ending investigation into drug activity.

For officers investigating drug cases, the work can be involved and time-consuming.

"It takes a long time to get the evidence, a year or more, in order to make arrests" in large-scale drug investigations, Wells said.

Kingsport Police Department vice detectives spend much of their time conducting undercover surveillance in order to get enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for an alleged drug house.

Sullivan County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Bobby Dooley, who supervises the Special Ops division, said he and his two vice officers are busy with drug investigations, but he always welcomes information from local citizens about drug activity.

"The main thing the community can do is keep their eyes open for drug dealing in the public or in their neighborhoods," Dooley said.

Citizens can make anonymous phone calls to the sheriff's office to report suspected drug activity, or Dooley said they can become involved in the investigation.

"We use confidential informants during our investigations."

Other methods include officers infiltrating a drug ring and making drug buys to gather evidence.

Wells, Kingsport Police Chief Mark Addington and other officials said the solution isn't just a law enforcement problem, it's a social problem - especially for prescription drug abuse.

They said the medical community needs to take a stand against doctors writing so many prescriptions for strong pain medications, and it would help if there were more ways to monitor the dispensing of such medications.

"Regulatory authorities, state and federal agencies, will not step in. They will not do anything (and) it's their job," Addington said.

"My own opinion is the physicians should stop writing prescriptions for pain medications left and right," Wells said.

An electronic medical records initiative scheduled to be in operation in the region by year's end may also play a part in the fight against prescription drug abuse.

CareSpark is a regional patient database that will provide medical professionals ready access to patients' medical records, including their prescriptions. The system will interconnect with physician offices, hospitals, public health departments, pharmacies, laboratories and imaging centers.

Wells said getting hooked on drugs is easier than getting off drugs, but for those who really want to clean up, there is help out there.

Wells also said state and local governments funding more probation officer positions to the probation department, writing in more supervision requirements, and putting more money into drug treatment programs for offenders would help combat the drug addictions so many people have.

 

dedbr

do they come up with these people, can someone tell me that please? Do they have a secret idjit school somewhere that turns 'em out all ready to spit out this stupid shit?

Case in point.....

First off, I always like it when they use these nice specific statements. Does he mean that the docs should stop writing script's or just write them down the center, whatever the hell that means?


The main thing the community should do is watch out for a raid that has the wrong address on the warrant and having their dog murdered in front of the kid's, or the kid's murdered in front of the dog.......

All the cops do is keep busting people for possession and rolling them to the next person that they bought it from, and so on and so on.......and so on.......snitches their called.

Their really just folk's. Just people like you and me. People who get scared by a bunch of bullying and intimidation and make a few bad mistakes and end up having to do and say some really bad things, a lot badder than if they would of just kept their mouth's shut and took the fine or whatever......


Some Where In Ded Land.............

__________________
"Starry, starry night, Paint your pallet blue and gray, Look out on a summers day,
With eyes that know the darkness of my soul, Shadows on the hills, Sketch the trees and the daffodils, Catch the breeze and the winter chill, In colors in the snowy linen land......"

Vincent.... Don Mclean


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