US WI: By A Big Margin, Marijuana Is Leading Cause Of Drug Arrests

Possession and delivery of marijuana by far account for the majority of
drug arrests across Columbia County, while heroin and prescription-drug
offenses are on the rise, according to an analysis of 2002 drug arrests.

Last year, the countywide drug task force made 58 arrests for the
manufacture and/or delivery of marijuana and 427 arrests for possession.

This disparity in those numbers doesn't mean the county is targeting the
user, Lt. Wayne Smith of the Columbia County Sheriff's Department said.

"Our real goal is to get to the dealers and work our way up to the large
dealers," Smith said, but users naturally get caught up in the net.

"We come across an awful lot of marijuana," he said, adding it's become
routine to make possession arrests as part of daily police work.

In the report, compiled by Detective Roger Brandner, project coordinator
for the county Drug Education and Enforcement Unit Task Force, it does note
that 42 percent of all 2002 drug arrests were for felonies, which includes
those found in possession for a second or subsequent charge.

With 27 arrests for delivery and 27 arrests for possession, cocaine
accounted for the county's second most drug arrests. This was followed by
heroin and OxyContin, both with 12 felony arrests.

The abuse of these opiate-based drugs is of special concern to
investigators, Smith said, because of their deadly nature.

A majority of the heroin arrests for both delivery and possession were in
the Wisconsin Dells area.

And the arrests were not tourist-based but rather came from people either
living permanently in the Dells or working on a seasonal basis.

"We went from zero arrests for several years to, all of a sudden, 12
arrests, which is a lot," Smith said.

In addition to the dozen OxyContin felony arrests, the task force also made
seven felony arrests for Oxycodone, the main ingredient found in OxyContin,
as well as other prescriptions such as Percocet and Percodan.

In all, the task force reported 550 people were arrested on 635
drug-related charges, and it seized eight vehicles, 26 guns and $7,000 cash.

It also executed 22 search warrants and 18 consent searches.

These figures do not include data from the Cambria or Lodi police
departments, which was not available when the report was compiled.

The task force, which is funded by a federal grant, is made up of about a
dozen officers who come from the Sheriff's Department and the Portage,
Wisconsin Dells, Columbus, Poynette, Cambria and Lodi police departments.