Editorial - DRUG-FREE MYTH

From Taylor to Kilgore, small towns are experiencing drug problems that
once were considered big-city concerns.

The stabbing death of Donald L. Weast is a grisly reminder that crack,
heroin and other drugs are wreaking havoc in rural as well as urban areas.
A Fredericksburg woman's long battle with drug dependency apparently led
her to kill the San Marcos man this week, according to police. Alexis Erin
Eager is accused of stabbing Weast more than 40 times before she fled in
his car to Austin where she was arrested. She sold Weast's car for three
rocks of cocaine, police said.

Taylor residents frequently march on drug houses and have forced Williamson
County prosecutors to invoke public nuisance laws to vacate the houses.
Chanting "up with hope, down with dope," members of Turn Around Elgin urged
the Texas National Guard to bulldoze vacant houses that had become crack
dens. There are similar stories of small-town crusades against drug
trafficking throughout the state.

A 1996 survey by the Texas Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission and Texas A&M
University destroys the myth of a drug-free countryside. The survey of
public school students from 7th to 12th grade shows that substance use
among adolescents in small school districts was similar to that in urban
school districts. Statewide, about 7 percent of survey participants said
they had tried crack or cocaine. It was about 8 percent among Austin
participants compared to 6.4 percent in Fredericksburg. The slight response
difference, less than 2 percent, indicates that drug use in rural areas is
comparable to that in cities.

Grass-roots efforts alone cannot curtail the spread of drugs, but residents
must be willing to do more than teach children to say "no" to drugs.
Marching on drug sites, while dangerous, brings unwanted attention to
illegal activity and has spurred law enforcement officials to do a better
job of protecting communities from drugs.

While elected officials should use public nuisance laws to slow drug sales,
they also should increase drug prevention services. Enforcement without
prevention allows a vicious cycle of drug abuse to continue.

Communities can't expect to stop drug use or sales. As long as there are
those who will buy them, they'll be available. But communities can prevent
drugs from taking over neighborhoods and limit the number of its victims --
whether they are users like Eager or victims like Weast.