DRUG CUSTOMERS COULD LOSE THEIR WHEELS

NEW HAVEN - Any driver who ventures to drive into the state's inner cities
to buy drugs may have a long walk home.

That's because U.S. Attorney Kevin J. O'Connor announced plans Friday to
begin seizing the cars of drug abusers and prosecuting the suspects in
federal court for misdemeanor possession charges.

"Reducing the demand for drugs is part of a comprehensive strategy for
shutting down illegal drug markets that plague so many urban centers,"
O'Connor said. "We think this will be successful and people in the
community will support these efforts in cleaning up their neighborhoods."

O'Connor said the program will be overseen by Supervisory Assistant U.S.
Attorney James I. Glasser, who heads his criminal division, and Assistant
U.S. Attorney Hank Kopel, who specializes in forfeiture cases.

"This is fair warning to those who drive from their homes in the suburbs to
buy drugs," O'Connor. "Get caught and you will not only face a federal
possession charge, but you will also lose your ride home."

O'Connor declined to specify when or where the program will begin.

"I prefer it to come as a surprise," he said.

He did say the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration along with local and
state police will handle the investigations.

Bridgeport State's Attorney Jonathan Benedict believes this program could
have a major impact in deterring drug deals in Bridgeport.

"People might think twice if they know they are going to lose their cars,"
he said.

But Andrew Bowman, a former federal prosecutor and public defender,
believes otherwise.

"If this is the latest chapter on how we're going to fight the war on
drugs, then I think we'd better rethink it," he said. "Most people who
purchase drugs are acting under a compulsion. Saying that we are going to
reduce that compulsion by taking their car is not going to get to the root
of the problem."

Instead, Bowman said, more effort has to be made to stop heroin and cocaine
from coming into the country.

"Plants that are used to make cocaine or heroin are not grown in this
country," he pointed out. "Whatever happened to interdiction?"