NATIONAL GUARD ANTI-DRUG EFFORT'S ARRESTS, SEIZURES UP

The West Virginia National Guard Counterdrug Progam has recorded 154
arrests and $5.7 million in seized drugs during the first half of this
fiscal year -- numbers that appear to be growing from previous years.

The National Guard was involved in 255 arrests during the entire 2000
fiscal year and 137 arrests during the 1999 fiscal year. The program seized
approximately $778,215 worth of illegal drugs over the last fiscal year and
$1,003 during the 1999 fiscal year.

Adj. Gen. Allen Tackett said strong anti-drug programs are essential.

"When I look at the statistics of how many young people are involved in
drugs today, I know we need good drug demand interdiction," Tackett said.
"I don't think we'll ever completely demolish drugs in this state, but we
can make it difficult for young people to get them."

The current statistics were fueled by $10 million in federal money that
will allow the National Guard to employ 55 full-time soldiers and purchase
a support aircraft.

A "significant increase in prescription drug use" has also contributed,
said Lt. Col. James Hoyer, deputy coordinator of the 6-year-old program.

Abuse of the prescription painkiller OxyContin has become a serious problem
in parts of West Virginia, law enforcement officials have said. Twenty West
Virginia deaths last year had ties to oxycodone, the sole ingredient in
OxyContin, according to autopsy reports and an investigation by the state
medical examiner's office.

Although the guardsmen have no arrest powers, they support law enforcement
agencies in counterdrug missions in West Virginia.

Joseph Ciccarelli, head of the Charleston office of the FBI, said the
National Guard makes its aircraft available for surveillance and helps with
paperwork and transcription work.

"It's kind of a theme of law enforcement -- everyone is understaffed,"
Ciccarelli said. The National Guard Counterdrug Program is "certainly money
well-spent, tax dollars well-spent," he said.

Meanwhile, civilian anti-drug groups also credit the National Guard with
helping them.

"Anything we come up with, they're willing to do," said Debbie Trent of
Stop Through Our Plan, or STOP, which targets teen-agers in Mingo County.