GUESS WHO'S WINNING THIS ONE

Any doubts about whether we are losing the war on drugs ought to be
put to rest by recent record confiscations of marijuana and a study
showing that drugs are the major common characteristic of the recently
arrested.

Last week, state drug agents happened upon a 2,300-pound haul of
marijuana in a tractor-trailer in Oklahoma City. That is more than
two-thirds the amount seized by state agents in 1998, when 3,085
pounds were confiscated, and nearly half the 3,984 pounds rounded up
in 1997.

But these record grabs are only the tip of the iceberg. An Oklahoma
City police official believes state agents find less than 10 percent
of the illegal drugs flooding the state each year. And a state drug
bureau agent says more marijuana is flowing into Oklahoma from Mexico
than ever before.

At the same time, law enforcement agents are busy tracking down
methamphetamine labs in record numbers. These clandestine and easily
assembled labs pop up overnight and disappear just as quickly. They
have been found even in public parks.

Oklahoma County has the highest rate of drug use among new arrestees
in the country. A study under a U.S. Justice Department grant shows
more than half the males arrested in Oklahoma County in 1998 tested
positive for marijuana. The percentage was so high that researchers at
first thought there had been a mistake, but further study verified the
high count.

The study continues with Oklahoma County likely to retain its first
place rank among 35 cities under scrutiny.

Obviously, the drug plague continues, tying up huge amounts of money
in a failed law enforcement effort and forcing state corrections staff
and county jailers to spend most of their effort on drug problems.

For most ordinary citizens, the drug problem is disguised in crime. A
majority of burglaries, assaults, thefts and robberies are committed
by people either on drugs or needing money to buy drugs.

Children are innocent victims. Too many of them come into the world
hopelessly damaged because their mothers used drugs; others are abused
horribly by parents or stepparents on drugs and still other innocents
are victimized at school by classmates either on drugs or selling drugs.

Gov. Frank Keating has declared anew that Oklahoma will get serious
about its drug problem. We wish him well.

Oklahomans -- and the rest of the country -- have been fighting the
war on drugs for decades. Drugs are winning.