TAKING BACK THE STREETS

America's inability to win its "War on Drugs" has prompted necessary,
productive debate over the best long-term strategies for minimizing the
plague of dope traffic. Many former drug warriors have learned the hard way
that the military analogy is a poor fit for a social problem that offers no
reasonable expectation of a final victory.

But for residents in communities where drug dealers run rampant, the ugly
consequences of that blatant criminal conduct tend to obscure long-term
theories advanced in the drug-policy debate. And those consequences demand
short-term action to clean up dope-infested neighborhoods.

That demand is being heard loudly and clearly in North Charleston, where
Mayor Keith Summey has wisely sought federal assistance to alleviate the
ravages of illegal drugs in his city, explaining to reporter James Scott:
"Until we are willing to recognize the problems, there will never be a
solution. We in North Charleston recognized we had a drug problem."

That problem contributes to North Charles-ton's high crime rate - a rate
that's tied to the scourge of illegal drugs in the city.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator Asa Hutchinson outlined
strategies to stem that scourge Monday night, telling an audience of North
Charleston residents and business leaders that combining drug-law
enforcement with prevention and treatment can limit and lower the number of
substance abusers and addicts.

According to our report, Mr. Hutchinson, a former congressman from
Arkansas, linked the drug menaces on the local and global levels: "What
happens in North Charleston has a worldwide connection. It is a worldwide
problem with a neighborhood solution."

That neighborhood solution is the focus of a three-day conference pairing
local police with federal agents in an effort to take the streets back from
the dope dealers. North Charleston, Allentown, Pa., and Portsmouth, Va.,
are the cities being served by a pilot program that seeks to lower both the
supply and demand of illegal drugs through community cooperation with the
authorities.

North Charleston Police Chief Jon Zumalt aims to foster such cooperation -
on a long-term basis - by sending officers into schools to help children
with their reading. The officers also can help children understand that the
police are their friends - and that drug abuse can ruin their lives.

Meanwhile, on the short-term enforcement level, running drug dealers out of
neighborhoods is rarely a permanent solution. Those criminals, or others
like them, have a bad habit of returning to service a lucrative market.

So be it. Run out one batch, then, when needed, run out the next.

Despite the limitations of such a predictable cycle, in North Charleston or
anywhere else, it does at least provide temporary relief from the drug
plague - and sends a welcome signal that law-abiding citizens, not criminal
dope dealers, control their communities.