DRUG TASK FORCE

St Lawrence Count Sheriff Gary Jarvis, the St. Lawrence County Drug
Task Force and the Ogdensburg Police Department's Drug Task Force
deserve the public's thanks this morning for their efforts to put a
dent in the North Country's narcotics trafficking.

The Drug Task Force, joined by a host of local, state and federal
agencies, fanned out at day break across the county with more than 50
arrest warrants for suspected drug traffickers.

The dealers are accused of peddling LSD, ecstasy, cocaine, and
marijuana to our children.

While there are those who continue to claim that there is nothing
wrong with peddling poisons to children, most people are aware that
thousands of families are wracked by the troubles caused by
addictions.

The drug dealers and their supporters like to claim that it ought to
be treated as a public health problem, but the sad reality is that
those claims are nothing more than a self serving excuse for
poisoners who wish to distribute dangerous chemicals to anyone they
please.

While opponents of the drug war can claim that our jails are full of
low level drug dealers, anyone who reads about the final disposition
of drug cases in this county realizes that most addicts are given the
opportunity to obtain treatment for their addictions.

The people who are jailed are the people who are making money off the
business and those who refuse treatment because they want the right
to stay high and peddle their poisons to pay for their habits.

Our point today is not to justify the war on drugs.

Most reasonable people understand that the ravages of addictions have
destroyed thousands of families in our area. They also realize that
if the dealers are left unmolested, as some wish, it will only be a
matter of time before more children are lured into a spiral of self
destruction.

We wish to thank the hard working officers who made a major dent in
the criminal underworld this morning.

We also wish to thank the Ogdensburg City Council and the members of
the St. Lawrence County Legislature who cared enough to provide the
resources for the war on drugs.