WAR ON DRUGS MAY SEEM NEVER ENDING, BUT WE MUST KEEP TRYING

Day after day, we hear reports about the war in Iraq. But we should remember
that our country has been in another war, just as deadly, for years.

The war on drugs this nation has fought in the modern era (since the 1960s)
has taken more lives, cost more money, and has reached no conclusion. There
really isn't a light at the end of the tunnel. The open society in which the
United States is based on won't permit a stoppage of the drug traffic.
Interstate 59 running through Laurel is an example of how hard it is to stop
the flow through Jones County.

Every day officers of the Laurel Police Department, Jones County Sheriff's
Office, Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force, and the Mississippi Highway
Patrol try to stem the tide. But, as Sheriff Larry Dykes has said countless
times, for every bust made, there are many more which slip through the
fingers of law enforcement.

As long as the money is there to be made off all drugs, there will be people
who will choose to deal in the illegal endeavor. A prime example of just how
lucrative the drug business can be was seen in the confiscation a month ago
of a large amount of reputed drug money that came right through Laurel. A
Louisiana Highway patrolman stopped a pickup truck pulling an enclosed
trailer. Inside, underneath a wide variety of construction equipment, were
seven suitcases full of drug money. The $3.5 million in cash is said to be
the largest amount ever confiscated in one stop.

True, that stop has put a serious hurt on whomever it was bound for, but the
simple fact remains that if that much money can be made off one deal, then
there will always be those who will take the monumental risks involved in
the trade.

By the way, the driver of that truck said he stopped in Laurel to fill up
with gas and grab a bite to eat.

The proliferation of crystal methamphetamine can be attributed to the easy
access to the ingredients and the simplicity of its manufacture. Plus,
crystal meth, along with crack cocaine, is one of the most addictive of the
now popular drugs flooding not just the cities, but especially into the
rural areas of the South.

Dykes admitted he didn't know much about crystal meth when he first became
sheriff in 2000, but since then he has had a crash course. "It is everywhere
and we are doing everything humanly possible to take it out of the county
but the fact remains it is in such quantity that all of law enforcement are
barely keeping up," he said.