HIGH COST: BIG MONEY BEING SPENT IN LOCAL DRUG FIGHT

It can truthfully be said that the cost of drug abuse in terms of
wrecked lives and misery cannot be calculated. This type of damage
is both tragic and irreparable.

But dollars and cents costs are also borne by a community -
sometimes needlessly.

Consider that Vicksburg has only one gated residential area with
24-hour security and key-card access. It's not for the super-rich.
It's Waltersville estates, an apartment complex on North Washington
Street owned and operated by the Vicksburg Housing Authority.

Through the years we've written countless stories on more and more
layers of protection being purchased for residents of the complex. A
most telling reality was reflected in a report in the spring when
the VHA said it had a waiting list of people needing public
housing and 24 vacancies at Waltersville. But none of
the prospective clients would move in at Waltersville. Things had
to be pretty bad for people to prefer homelessness.

Now we learn it's altogether possible that while hundreds of
thousands of dollars were being spent trying to keep drugs out of
Waltersville Estates, a key manager of the Vicksburg Housing
Authority might have been using the enclave to house the clientele
of his personal narcotics business.

Charles Jones Jr., facing charges related to taking delivery of a
2.2-pound package of cocaine worth $100,000 mailed to him at the VHA
office, is an innocent man unless or until a jury says otherwise.
But if the 45-year-old Jones, a 25-year VHA employee in charge of
maintenance, purchasing and receiving, is also a drug dealer, it
would explain a lot.

Multiple agencies participated in the investigation that led to
Jones' being charged. Police Chief Tommy Moffett said informants had
been offering information about Jones for five years, but the case
was difficult to make. James Stirgus Sr., the VHA executive director
who has said in the past he didn't think local law enforcement was
doing enough to help keep drugs out of public housing, was both
shocked and chagrined and made a personal apology to Moffett.

Stirgus also said he fears an elevated stigma will attach to
clients, specifically that all who live in public housing are
druggies. They're not. Most are just like everybody else - trying to
work, raise families, pay bills and pay taxes.

How wasteful the spending of tax dollars on security at Waltersville
will prove to have been if it's shown the main person trafficking
drugs was a person with unlimited and unquestioned access.