IS CRACK BACK?

Another drug has entered the revolving door of illegal substances in
Adair County.

Area law enforcement agencies have noticed a recent increase in
cocaine use and attributed it to the successful community effort to
eliminate the local manufacturing of methamphetamine.

Kirksville police chief Jim Hughes said it's not unusual for drugs to
surface on a cyclical basis and that cocaine has nearly always existed
in Kirksville and surrounding areas.

"It's misleading to say it's an epidemic," Hughes said.

Hughes also said rates of cocaine use are slightly higher than they
were five years ago, although the last big cocaine bust occurred about
18 months ago.

"[Cocaine is] not typical, but it's not atypical," Hughes said of the
drug's local presence.

Hughes said the issue of meth has not been completely
resolved.

"You think you've got a handle on [a drug], and then it resurges," he
said.

Hughes said drugs are a problem in many communities, even in towns
like Kirksville.

"Any drug you can find in any large city, you can find here," he
said.

Hughes said alcohol and marijuana are the two substances officers
encounter most often in their duties.

He said the police department has been making more busts involving
multiple pounds of marijuana, including one last Friday (see story on
page 1), which is unusual. Hughes said that finding pounds of cocaine
is abnormal in this area of the country.

The Kirksville Police Department has arrested 51 people so far this
year for drug or drug paraphernalia related offenses, according to
department documents.

Cathy Rohn, vice chairwoman of the Adair County Drug Coalition, said
her organization has also noticed an increase in cocaine use. More
people are testing positive for cocaine in urine tests conducted by
the local probation and parole office, she said.

Rohn said drug use in general is a large problem in Adair County
because when people aren't arrested for it directly, drugs are usually
implicated in arrests for bad checks or child support disputes.

Rohn said her organization changed its name from the Adair County Meth
Coalition to the Adair County Drug Coalition because it recognized
that drugs other than meth are a local problem.

In addition to using cocaine in lieu of meth, people also are buying
and consuming pseudo-ephedrine pills in large quantities to get high,
Rohn said.

"Whenever we get one drug under control, people find a way to replace
it," she said. "With addiction, people are always going to find a way."

Tom Johnson, director of public safety, said the Department of Public
Safety seldom arrests students for drug-related charges. In the four
years that he has worked for the University, every such arrest has
been for marijuana, he said.

Johnson said despite the relatively few arrests, drugs still are a
problem on campus.

"These are the [drugs] that we've located, but that doesn't mean there
aren't more out there," he said. "I think anytime you're dealing with
something [like this] it's illegal for a reason."

Six people were arrested at the University on drug-related charges
last year, according to the most recent annual campus crime report.

The University Student Health Center administers the American College
Health Association National College Health Assessment every year to a
randomly selected group of 1,100 students. Of the 659 students who
responded to the spring 2007 survey, 3 percent said they had used
cocaine at least once in the previous 30 days.

A former Truman student, who declined to be identified, said he first
began selling cocaine before he transferred to the University last
year. At his previous school, the drug was easily accessible and he
started using it before progressing to dealing it.

He said by the time he came to Kirksville he had stopped selling
cocaine because of family pressure. However, he still knew where to
find the drug and the people who used it at the University, he said.

He described cocaine as a closet drug at Truman because users tend to
be quiet about their habit.

"The people who do it ... the only ones who know are the people doing
it with them," he said.

He said cocaine is expensive in Kirksville and somewhat difficult to
find in town because not many people deal it. He said one-eighth of an
ounce of cocaine costs $200 and a gram costs $90 while he was here.

He said the students who sell cocaine usually bring it back with them
after a weekend home in St. Louis or Kansas City.

He said he never saw any students using crack cocaine, although he
knew it was common among Kirksville residents. Crack is cheaper,
albeit more dangerous, than cocaine, he said.

He said while dealing at his other school he usually wasn't in danger
of getting caught by law enforcement because he usually sold it among
friends. However, he did have a close call once, he said.

"The guy I was supposed to be working with was out of town and got
busted by the Drug Enforcement Administration," he said. "Now, had I
had more communication with him, yes, I would have been in danger at
that point. However, ... his number was not in my phone and mine was
not in his, so there was no real danger of me getting caught."

He said he has been completely clean of all drugs since July, and it
has been over a year since he used or dealt cocaine.

Cocaine is prevalent throughout the U.S., especially in urban areas,
said Tom Murphy, group supervisor with the St. Louis division of the
DEA. Murphy said Kansas City and Chicago are the primary hubs for
cocaine trafficking in the Midwest.

He said cocaine comes into the country with either Colombians crossing
the Caribbean and landing at American ports, or Mexicans crossing the
U.S. border into Texas. From there it is distributed to various drug
retail markets, Murphy said.

Murphy said the DEA combats cocaine trafficking by keeping tabs on the
cells of traders, providing training and funding to local law
enforcement agencies and working with U.S. border authorities and
Mexican officials.