THE TRAGEDY OF DRUG USERS

It's good news when law enforcement agencies work together and make a big
arrest that breaks up drug-trafficking rings.

It's a tragedy that so many young people are turning to the get-rich-quick
illusions of drugs.

Police seized more than 6 pounds of cocaine Thursday and arrested more than
a dozen suspected members of a drug gang in Valley Park.

All the suspects have been charged in federal court with at least one count
of possession of crack or powder cocaine with the intent to distribute,
officials said.

Other charges include money laundering, threats of violence to maintain or
increase the position of a racketeering enterprise and operating a
continuing criminal enterprise.

The arrests involved work over almost a year by a Capital Area Gang Task
Force, which includes officers from the FBI, State Police, Sheriff's Office
and the Baton Rouge Police Department. The U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration also was involved in the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rand Miller said the suspects will be prosecuted
under federal drug-trafficking laws and face "very significant" sentences.

The arrest and conviction of drug traffickers is good news, and especially
so if it helps to suppress the drug trade in a struggling neighborhood. What
is beyond words is that the list of the accused includes young people, in
their teens or 20s.

It is one thing to turn to a life of crime, but the folly and the loss is
compounded when young lives are devoted to criminal enterprises. A lifetime
of opportunity can be so easily thrown away, because of the lure of money or
of substance abuse.