YEP, WE'RE WATCHING

A former city clerk in Scranton is arrested for allegedly manufacturing
methamphetamine in her home. A Kansas Highway Patrol trooper inspects a
suspicious tanker truck near Goddard that turns out to be carrying 3,400
pounds of marijuana -- a record $2.3 million bust for the patrol.

And in Wamego, just west of Topeka, federal authorities have been
dismantling what is claimed to be one of the largest LSD manufacturing
sites in the world, in a former Cold War missile silo.

For law-abiding citizens naively going about their day-to-day business and
living their lives by the rules, the drug world seems to be from another
planet. But the above incidents are dramatic reminders that illegal drugs
are all around us: tucked inside the truck in the next lane, hidden in the
house down the street -- or disguised as a spring-making factory in a silo
just outside of town.

But at least in Kansas, you can run but you can't hide -- for long. People
talk. Neighbors pay attention. Questions get asked. What may seem like a
remote place to an outsider may actually be a conspicuous part of a
close-knit community.

It seems things will always be this way. As long as people are sad or
foolish enough to seek out the other world in our midst, then someone will
be supplying the ticket.

Our burden, then, will be eternal vigilance. People who take drugs might
think it's no big deal. That it's their business. Sorry, but when drug
dealers are disturbing the calm night air of a peaceful rural Kansas
community, it's everybody's business. And more than that, it's a crime.
It's a crime what they're doing to our communities, and it's a crime what
they're doing to our kids.

The peaceful folks of Kansas are under no illusions now that the drug
dealers aren't constantly in our midst.

Likewise, the dealers had better not be under the illusion that they're not
being watched.