LOCAL DRUG USE ON RISE

A new crime control unit, the Neighborhood Enhancement Team, has recently
added a drug task force section and along with the Hattiesburg Police
Department's division of narcotics and Metro Crime Stoppers. A reduction in
drug related crime is a feasible goal, said NET officer Matt Adams. Not all
Hattiesburg residents agree there is a drug problem, and some think that
drugs in Hattiesburg are here to stay. Adams said that an estimated 70 to
80 percent of all arrests made in Hattiesburg are drug related and for a
long time the number of drug related crime has been going up. Adams credits
most of the crimes to greed and laziness. "I think when it comes down to
it," Adams said," some people just don't want to work for their money."
Greed also plays a large factor, Adams said. The police have arrested many
people who go right back to buying and selling drugs as soon as they are
released from jail. This, he said, shows nothing more than uncontrollable
greed. "There's even been a rise in drug-related crime among the college
student population," Adams said. With designer drugs becoming more and more
widely used among college-age people, Adams said, more young people are
being exposed to a world of crime they did not expect. "These kids are just
opening themselves up for violence," said Adams. And, he said they are
opening themselves up for unexpected results from the drugs they take. "We
see a lot of cases where people will mix in crack-cocaine with marijuana
without telling the people they're selling it to," Adams said. "They want
their stuff to be the best and they want people to come back to them. So a
person starts off smoking marijuana and next they're hooked on
crack-cocaine-without even intentionally trying it." Diana James,
coordinator of Metro Crime Stoppers, offers another theory to why
drug-related crime in Hattiesburg has been on the rise. "I think," she
said, "good jobs give people something better to do than drugs." And with
the loss of many area jobs, as a result, people could be turning to drugs.
Mississippi has lost over 40,000 jobs as a result of North American Free
Trade Agreement, she said, and there doesn't seem to be a way around the
loss of jobs. If there is a direct correlation between economic decline
then drug-related crime should be on the rise and the narcotics department,
which Adams said is under-staffed, will have their hands full. James said
that a majority of the tips she receives at Metro Crime Stoppers are drug
related.

The most common drugs reported and confiscated in the arrests resulting
from callers' tips are crack-cocaine and crystal-meth. Not all Hattiesburg
residents think that the drug-related crime is rampant in their city. Some
residents, like 25-year-old Jason Perry, think that spending more money and
time fighting drugs is futile. "It's a college town so there are drugs,"
Perry said. "I think it's a waste of money to continue the war on
drugs-especially locally. (The police are) not going to keep people from
wanting to get high. (People will) find a way to do it somehow." The war on
drugs, in Hattiesburg anyway, is taking a step up, said Adams, under the
new chief of police, David Wynn, who is putting more emphasis on
drug-related crime in this area. Andrew Williams, 24, is a USM graduate who
currently resides in Hattiesburg. He said that he has been exposed to what
is called the drug-culture in this area but he doesn't think it is as big
of a problem as some might believe. "I don't think it has reached epidemic
proportions," Williams said. "I think most of it is a bunch of collegiate
dabblers just experimenting." Williams also said he does not think there is
a direct correlation between the recent economic decline and increased drug
use. "I think (the police are) just catching more people.

I've lived here for five years and I haven't seen any increase in drug use.
"When poverty rears it's ugly head," Williams said, "you're gonna have drug
problems.

But if anything, it just gives people less money to buy drugs with." People
such as Adams and James argue say that this is one of the factors that
leads to drug-related crime. Drug crimes are not always buying, selling and
using drugs, Adams said. Many times the desire to get drugs or money for
drugs drives people to commit crimes such as theft, robbery and even
murder. Williams said he doesn't think that the college-age crowd should be
targeted as much as they are because, he said, those people aren't
typically the ones with the severe problems. "You're on really slippery
ground when you make a distinction between types of drug use," Williams
said, but it also depends on what kind of drugs people are caught with when
it comes to how severe the punishments should be. "If someone's caught
selling $10 bags of marijuana out of their dorm room that's one thing,"
Williams said. "If someone's caught selling kilos of cocaine that's another
thing altogether. "I think there are prescription drugs out there that
shouldn't be as readily available as they are," he said. "They're just a
different kind of drug that's being sold by people legally." Williams said
that he thinks these drugs are just as dangerous, if not more dangerous,
than some illegal drugs. Regardless if drug-related crime is a serious
problem in Hattiesburg or not, local law enforcement is really starting to
crack down on drugs, said Adams. The economy might continue to spiral
downward, but, Adams said, Hattiesburg police will only get tougher on
drugs and crime in general.