CRACK, KILLINGS NEED REGIONAL FIX

Two stories during the weekend made us wonder about the future of our
communities.

The first examined a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and its
interpretation by the federal courts that could lead to sentence
reductions for 380 convicted local crack dealers, with 18 to 37 of
them potentially eligible for immediate release. The justices decided
that higher penalties for crack than for powder cocaine were unjust
and racially unfair -- powder cocaine being an elite drug and crack
being the drug of poor, black communities.

The second story was that East St. Louis had recorded its 29th
homicide of the year. The last time there were so many killings in
the city was in 1997, when there were 30.

We don't know the motive behind all 29 killings, but so many of them
are portrayed as senseless and random. We imagine most are less than
random and are linked to drugs when we hear that a guy from
Belleville or O'Fallon was shot in the middle of the night, that a
car full of young men was sprayed with bullets, or that people were
shot in their front yards.

We've said it often, but none of this will improve until community
members, secular and religious leaders from above and below the
bluffs as well as law enforcement from federal, state, county and
municipal agencies decide too many have died and begin working
together for a solution.

And with 37 experienced crack dealers, fresh from the federal pen's
"finishing school," potentially on their way back to town, this is
the time to start.

This scourge will not stay in our neighbor's house. It eventually
will consume ours.