NEW IDEAS NEEDED TO END DRUG USE, TRAFFICKING CRISIS IN LUZERNE COUNTY

I always thought that Christmas was a time for peace on Earth, or at least
in this country. Having time off from work, I had the opportunity to
actually sit down and read the local newspapers.

1. On Christmas Eve a trio from Edwardsville and Hanover ride around
looking for older female victims with the hope of stealing their purses.
Crimes were committed in Edwardsville and Wilkes-Barre Township. When
caught by the police, they are referred to as "heavy- duty heroin addicts"
and "pathetic."

2. On Christmas day, another trio is pulled over for a routine traffic
stop. A 21-year-old girl from Clarks Summit was the driver. The two men
were from Philadelphia and had in their possession cocaine, large amounts
of cash, and worst of all, loaded guns in hand.

3. The day after Christmas an Edwardsville man dies of a heroin overdose.
The drugs were supplied by a 21-year-old man from Brooklyn, N.Y. He has in
his possession at the time of arrest 250 bags of heroin and $4,900 in cash.

4. The following day a man from Reading is indicted for delivering over 50
grams of cocaine and over 100 grams of heroin. This man admitted the
following: He was the only one in his drug ring that has been caught so
far. He buys drugs in Philadelphia, New York City, New Jersey and Reading
for distribution solely in Luzerne County.

Read between the lines and you will see that this is only a small part of
what is actually taking place in our community. For this many out- of-town
people to come specifically to Luzerne County to sell drugs, means that
something is wrong here. If you talk to an addict, you will find out that
it takes them less than 10 minutes to locate a dealer and complete their
transaction.

Purses being stolen from old ladies, loaded guns being carried by drug
dealers, people dying from drug overdoses, home invasions, murders and
drug-related crimes on the rise are all potential for disaster in our
neighborhoods. We need to wake up and "think outside the box" to come up
with new ways to fight the war on drugs.

I congratulate Kingston's Mayor Haggerty and its entire police force for
their idea to knock on the door of every suspected drug house and let the
dealers know that they are being watched. This is exactly what we need, new
ideas to fight an old problem. These people obviously thought long and hard
about their decision, and we as a community need to support that decision
rather than find faults or criticize it.

The community needs to get involved before things will get better. Don't
rely on the "system" to work in this case, because it hasn't worked yet.
Eighty five percent of the population in the Luzerne County jail is in on
drug-related charges. The cost for a one-year stay in a county jail in
Pennsylvania is between $25,000 and $33,000 of taxpayers' money. The
success rate for rehabilitation in Luzerne County prison is near zero. The
reason is that there is no EFFECTIVE treatment offered. As a matter of
fact, the treatment in any of the drug treatment centers in Luzerne County
has less than 10 percent success rate. This is due to funding and/or
insurance companies limiting the stay to between 10 to 28 days.

The alternative is to extend the rehabilitation period to 120 days. At this
point, the success rate increases to near 75 percent and the cost is less
than $20,000. So I ask you as a taxpayer, why do you let your elected
officials spend $33,000 of your tax dollars repeatedly on a program that
does not work when they could spend $20,000 one time with a proven success
rate of 75 percent?

Scott Holbrook

Harveys Lake