DRUG WAR MUST TARGET SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Following last week's major sweep of suspected drug dealers in Cayuga
County and beyond, Auburn Police Chief Gary Giannotta predicted drug
activity around here will be quieter this summer.

We certainly hope he's right, but we also view last week's bust as a
giant red flag about an underlying drug problem in this county that
arrests of drug dealers will not permanently stop.

Take a look at the list of arrests made by the team of law
enforcement agencies in Cayuga County last week - nearly all of them
carried sales and/or conspiracy charges. In other words, there have
been a lot of people dealing drugs in our community.

And that means there's exponentially more people who have been buying
from them. Some big-time sellers are perhaps shut down, but the
demand for their products is still there.

Authorities may hope that sweeps like these will deter new drug
dealers from setting up shop in our communities, but if would-be
dealers know there's money to be made here, such thinking may be unrealistic.

Critics of the government's war on drugs point to this cycle as a big
reason that such efforts are ultimately a waste of time and money. We
disagree. Any time a drug dealer is taken off the street, a
neighborhood is a little safer, a community is a little stronger - if
only for a little while.

But we also know that more needs to be done to help people kick
debilitating drug habits. We need to evaluate the rehabilitation
resources available in this community, and we also need to focus on
the underlying reasons people turn to drugs - lack of job
opportunities, poor parental upbringing, shoddy access to mental health care.

So while it was a job well done last week by all of the law
enforcement involved, we must keep it in perspective. True victory
will come when drug dealers discover there's no money to be made in
this part of the region.