DRUG TASK FORCE MUST STOP BUSTS-FOR-MONEY

David England, the president of Des Moines Area Community College, was
targeted by the Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force to pad its grant application.
England is accused of having 2.5 pounds of pot at his home, along with
someplant seedlings. Yes, drugs are illegal, but prosecuting those who
choose to use them should not occur for an agency's gain.

Many were not surprised that the bust on the England home happened in
March, just a few weeks from the task force's April application deadline
for federal aid, its main source of funding. Last year, the task force
received $500,000 from the federal Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local
Law Enforcement Assistance Grant program. The Byrne fund helps 25 drug task
forces in Iowa. The task-force program brings in around $5.5 million each
year, with $3 million spent on actual task-force activities and the rest on
prevention and treatment programs.

England's lawyer, Allen St. Pierre, who is the executive director of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says, "The
government will use this as an example." Even though task-force officials
deny that they used the England bust to help their application, they admit
that the grant process is very competitive. The applications show only
arrest statistics, but the task force sends news clippings to the
drug-control office to impress those who will fund its requests.

England is not the first high-profile case the task force has conveniently
prosecuted in March. Last year, police said they made the largest
methamphetamine bust in Des Moines after charging four men after allegedly
finding 10 pounds of meth. In 2001, authorities claimed to have broken up a
two-state, Iowa and Nebraska, meth ring. And in 2000, a prominent business
owner was charged with running a meth lab.

These cases probably took weeks, even months, of investigation. Is it
simply a coincidence that these cases, considered to be the task force's
shining moments, all happened in March?

The task force should do its job all year, not only when it stands to benefit.