PUTTING AN END TO DRUG SALES

Re: "Drug conference attendees see bleak picture," Page 1, Dec. 9.

Sunday's article quoted a Florida police official who described his
frustration with the "revolving door" of drug arrests.

"We were going to the same houses, arresting the same people, getting
the same results," he said. "We cannot arrest our way out of the problem."

He is correct that arrests alone will not reverse the prevalence of
illegal drugs. That will happen only when we eliminate the drug marketplaces.

Under the leadership of the late Mayor Louis Tallo and Assistant
Chief Kenny Corkern, the city of Hammond in 2002 virtually eliminated
the sale of crack cocaine within city limits.

It used a civil nuisance law, La. R.S. 13:4712, et seq., to get civil
judgments of closure for up to five years against property owners who
knowingly allowed crack cocaine and other drugs to be sold on the property.

Owners who didn't know were instead informed of the problem and given
a chance to eliminate the drug dealers before action was taken
against the property.

This law is court-tested, constitutional and it eliminates the
safe-haven marketplaces for drug sales.

If citizens want their parish president, district attorney, sheriff
or mayor to get control of the drug problem in their community, they
should ask these officials why they are not aggressively using the
civil nuisance law.

Douglas D. Brown

Former Assistant City Attorney

Hammond