DRUGS 'OLD ISSUE WITH A NEW TWIST'

MIFFLINTOWN - The Rotary Club at Mifflintown invited a guest speaker
Thursday at their weekly luncheon meeting at Truck Stop 35.

Special Agent John Barrett from the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
addressed the group, stressing the importance of community activism to
combat the local drug problem.

Barrett has 15 years experience with the DEA and began his career in
Newark, NJ, working for two years there. In 1990, he made the move to
the gang-infested Los Angeles area.

After eight years in California, he was assigned to Puerto Rico for
three years. As Barrett put it, "I came to the lovely Harrisburg just
over two years ago and I am enjoying it immensely. It is good to be
back on the mainland."

Barrett came to Mifflintown to talk about an "old issue with a new
twist." Drug trafficking and the problems it brings to remote areas,
such as Juniata County.

Barrett provided background information about the DEA and its ongoing
struggle to arrest drug smugglers over the past 30 years.

He summed up the drug culture decade by decade and how it coincided
with the creation of the DEA in 1973. The newly formed agency had
fewer than 3,000 agents at that time and now has more than 5,000. In
1973, Richard Nixon was president and, after a decade of social change
dominated by mood-altering drugs in the 1960s, "we turned the corner
and the drug war followed us."

In the 1980s, Barrett said, "South American cocaine literally was
washing up on the beaches of Miami and South Florida becoming an open
shooting gallery for outlaw cowboys seeking to make a profit."

This was the decade that Ronald Reagan was president and Nancy Reagan
pushed the "Just Say No" slogan. Unable to just say no and unable to
shut off drug use on the consumer end, the demand for drugs created an
increased profit for the drug traffickers.

By 1990, the traffickers realized that they could "expand their drug
trade beyond cocaine and marijuana, by beginning a mass cultivation of
opium poppy plants in the Colombian countryside, which produced high
quality heroin."

Barrett said, "Drug use and distribution followed us into the new
millennium and the same new age technology that benefited legitimate
businesses also benefited drug traffickers." Cell phones and pagers
were making it easier for the drug lords to distribute their killer
cargo from overseas.

Barrett said law enforcement findings have indicated that wholesale
drug traffickers have moved their stash houses from the inner cities
into the smaller communities.

He particularly wanted to focus on Juniata County and the increase in
the use of Oxycontin. Barrett said Oxycontin is often referred to as
the "Hillbilly Heroin."

He explained that it is a synthetic heroin used legitimately for
cancer patients and their pain management. This drug has become the
reason behind most of the pharmacy burglaries in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania leads the country with the greatest number of pharmacy
thefts followed by Florida and Ohio according to the DEA Diversion
Investigators.

The DEA Diversion Investigators work the pharmaceutical end of drug
trafficking. Barrett said that methamphetamine and ecstasy are other
synthetic party drugs that are on an upward trend in Juniata County.

The United Nations Office of Drug and Crime report that these
synthetic drugs are especially dangerous because of the irreversible
alterations that occur in the brains chemistry.

Barrett said the "trend of high grade urban heroin in Juniata County
began several years ago. Juniata County data supports the idea that
heroin has been the drug of choice since 1997 up to the present."

He reported that admissions to state facilities for treatment of
heroin addiction of Juniata County residents have doubled this fiscal
year. "From the year 2000 to 2001, there were 14 admissions and from
2002 to 2003, there have been 31 admissions," he said.

"How can we effectively combat it?" Barrett talked about the community
activism involved in fighting the influx of traffickers that was seen
recently in Mifflin County.

He said that because local citizens reported to police suspicious
activity the result was a multi-agency effort that led to indictments
of New York City drug dealers.

Community activism takes many forms, whether they come through
schools, churches or law enforcement.

Barrett said to keep it in the forefront. "Drug dealers are like
roaches, they hate the light that focuses attention on them. Don't
give them a place to hide.

"Light up your community with media reports and community programs and
citizen involvement. You are not alone in the battle against drugs.
Your neighboring counties are in this fight with you also as well as
the state, local and federal law enforcement."

Barrett said staying in tuned to what is happening in the fast paced
youth culture can help.

He said, "If your daughter or granddaughter comes home with a baby
pacifier or a chemical glow stick light stick in her mouth. The
chances are that she has been to a rave party. The common drug at a
rave party being ecstasy. Most importantly report suspicious activity
to local authorities. You are the eyes and ears of the local community
and we rely on you."