SIX FLAGS METAL DETECTORS LED TO DRUG BUSTS, TOO

Mom, daughter and a day full of rides and fun planned at Six Flags Great
America. Except in at least one case this year, the mother happens to be
carrying a partial marijuana cigarette as she tries to enter the Gurnee
amusement park with her young daughter.

Security personnel are alerted as new metal detectors are tripped. The
devices can pick up anything from a large belt buckle to a knife.

A subsequent search at an on-site Gurnee police office resulted in the
discovery of the marijuana in the mother's possession, hidden in a cigarette
pack, police said.

It led to a warning ticket and automatic ejection from the park for the
mother - and a very disappointed daughter.

"The mom was in tears," Gurnee police Cmdr. Jay Patrick said. "How is she
going to explain this to her daughter, that they can't go into the park?
(The girl) probably was looking forward to it for a long time."

This was just one of 77 marijuana busts made at the park this year as the
unexpected result of the use of metal detectors.

Officials at Great America credit this year's first-ever use of the metal
detectors aimed at keeping weapons out as also helping to keep a lot of
drugs out of the park.

"I really don't know that we really thought about the fact we would get more
drug arrests or anything like that from (the metal detectors)," Patrick
said. "The intention of it was to keep weapons out of the park and to make
it a more safe environment for the patrons inside."

Although the intent of the detectors was to keep weapons out of the park,
police said no one was arrested this year for trying to sneak any past the
front gate. Besides the marijuana arrests, there were few others for
possession of other drugs such as cocaine.

Under the park's policy, anyone caught trying to bring a weapon or illegal
drugs onto the premises is automatically ejected - despite having paid an
adult gate fee of $42 or $22.50 for a child - and is subject to arrest.

The park used the metal detectors from May 1 through Oct. 31.

The metal detectors allowed security personnel to frisk patrons or visually
search their bags when the devices were tripped. Guards sometimes used a
stick to poke through a bag's contents.

If something suspicious turned up, Patrick said, the patron was brought to
Gurnee police officers stationed near the front entrance.

The trend toward increased drug arrests became apparent to police in June
when they found marijuana on 23 visitors to the park.

Great America spokeswoman Connie Costello said the front-gate screening
process was justified because it helped the park maintain a family
atmosphere. Like police, she said she was caught off guard by the number of
drug arrests.

"We had so many positive comments," she added. "It has been overwhelmingly
positive."

Visitors probably didn't notice many of the arrests because they were
handled discreetly and because patrons often are preoccupied and simply
don't notice, Costello said.

Premier Parks Inc., Great America's parent company, said the implementation
of the metal detectors in Gurnee mirrored what has been done at most of its
25 parks across the country.

Great America is not alone when it comes to amusement park drug busts due to
the magnetometers. Denver police said 16 drug-related offenses were reported
at Six Flags Elitch Gardens from May 1 through Aug. 31.

Nine of those were for marijuana possession and five were for possession of
drug paraphernalia, Denver police Detective Mary Thomas said.

Gurnee police records did not separate warning tickets from actual citations
for the 77 pot busts, Patrick said. He said police showed compassion toward
marijuana-possession suspects, especially considering they already had
forfeited their Great America tickets.

"It's up to officer discretion," said Patrick. "I worked a few overtime
hours out there and a lot of the cases I came across would be somebody with
half a joint or something. I'm not going to send somebody to court for
that."

Suspects who got a warning ticket on their first offense would not be as
lucky the second time, Patrick said. Depending on the amount of marijuana, a
possession offense can be charged as a misdemeanor that can bring local jail
time or as a felony with the potential for prison.