STORY GENERATES INTEREST, RESPONSES

Last week after running the story, Parents to push for solutions, a story
that reported on the possibility of establishing drug-free zones around
local schools, the Castlegar News received the following e-mail from
majordomo@mapinc.org:

That might have happened, once or twice where it was traded in
pound-for-pound (mistakenly), but there is no way anyone would be dumb
enough to do that. A pound of pot in LA goes for roughly about $3,000 to
$3,300 USD. And a pound of coke would go for around $7,000+ USD. Now you
tell me, is that a good trade? Why would anyone want to lose over $3,500
USD? Does that make any sense whatsoever? I'm sorry, but I think you need
to check your facts. The media needs to stop spreading these fake rumors.

Several URLs where included with this message, with links to a website
called the The Media Awareness Project. Our sidebar story, Trip south turns
pot to coke, which related RCMP Const. Fran Bethell's take on the local
drug scene, had been posted to this site - and was obviously the cause of
concern for the e-mail sender. The main story, however, was not posted to
the site for the information of site visitors. Nor was a background piece
outlining the success and failure of drug-free zones elsewhere posted to
the site.

Coincidently, at the same time as this e-mail was received by the News,
responses to the News website Question of the Week began to come at an
unusually high rate (we normally get less than a dozen per week, in two
days we received about three dozen responses). The question attracting this
attention was "Would drug-free zones around schools help curb the drug
problem?" and response was overwhelmingly against the idea (at press time:
Yes, 2; No, 38).