RESTORE FUNDING FOR DRUG TASK FORCE

The Issue:

METRICH Funds Cut From $260,000 to $100,000 for 2007

Our Opinion: Campaign Against Illegal Drugs Wrong Place for Budget Cutting

If we're fighting a war on drugs in north central Ohio, the state and
federal government have suddenly sounded retreat.

It appears the sound concept of encouraging local enforcement
agencies to cooperate and share resources and information is no
longer in vogue with folks controlling federal and state purse strings.

That means regional drug task force efforts, like the local METRICH
Enforcement Unit, may soon be scrambling for money needed to continue
the fight launched here two decades ago.

Mansfield police Chief Phil Messer, the METRICH program director,
announced this week the agency will receive only $100,000 in state
and federal money in 2007, compared to $260,000 in 2006.

It's anyone's guess after that. "After 2007, the cuts could be so
deep you can't survive as a task force," Messer said.

As is often the case when decisions involve federal and state
government and bureaucrats, this idea of reducing funds needed to
help keep drugs off our streets in 10 area counties makes no sense.

METRICH, founded in 1986 as a combined effort of the Mansfield Police
Department, Richland County Sheriff's Department and county
prosecutor's office, has been a shining example of how effectively a
drug task force can perform.

It has arrested literally thousands of area drug dealers and seized a
ton of drugs and weapons. It has stripped area fields of marijuana,
busted up methamphetamine labs and closed down crack houses. It has
arrested dealers from the street level to the national level.

And it's done all of this without a single fatality in 20 years of
drug enforcement.

The reward for this excellent record?

Vastly reduced funding.

Are we missing something here? The idea of encouraging
regionalization and cooperation by law enforcement agencies to combat
illegal drugs in our communities was one of the best tools developed
in this effort.

We understand belt tightening is needed at all levels of government.
But drug task forces such as METRICH have demonstrated time and again
during the last 20 years they operate effectively -- and efficiently.

We are about to send two new lawmakers to Washington and Columbus. We
urge U.S. Rep.-elect Jim Jordan and state Rep.-elect Jay Goyal to
take up the fight on behalf of METRICH and other drug task forces now
operating in Ohio.