DISTASTEFUL LABEL TELLS A HARD TRUTH

It's not the sort of thing you'd want plastered across billboards as you
arrive in town: "Welcome to Syracuse: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area."

But hey, if the shoe fits, and it comes stuffed with cash, try it on.

If plans materialize, Syracuse will join Albany, Rochester and Buffalo in
this unwelcome but realistic category - which would cause from $1 million
to $3 million in extra federal dollars to flow into each Upstate city. It's
part of Washington's National Drug Control Policy, and Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y., thinks the time has come to cash in. He's right.

Thus far, Los Angeles, Houston, South Florida and the New York/New Jersey
metro area have qualified for this designation, along with a couple dozen
other regions, many of them on the nation's borders. Schumer reasons that
cities along the New York Thruway could use the extra drug-interdiction
funds to combat trafficking that emanates from New York City and across the
border in Canada. Right again. And he's persuaded law-enforcement officials
and city leaders in Upstate's largest cities, which aim to use the money to
improve their communication and coordination efforts.

To be sure, this is hardly an economic development tool. It would be grand
if the feds decided there is so little drug-trafficking along this
much-traveled corridor that no more funds are needed. When that day
arrives, Syracuse will be only too glad to give up the money.