THE FIGHT FOR OUR FUTURE HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN

South Mississippi is fighting back against the scourge of drugs affecting
our communities, but the fight has just begun.

It is not unlike the nation's fight against terrorism, which will
doubtlessly take many years to win. Our resolve must be for victory in the
long haul, not a spectacular moment of success.

The Sun Herald's partnership with many community leaders, businesses, law
enforcement and health care professionals during Red Ribbon Week has helped
to bring a sharper focus on the problem, and together we are seeking to
find solutions to the many challenges that face us in this battle.

This week our core group of experts who are collaborating to find those
solutions helped us assess where we are and pointed to some of the
roadblocks that must be overcome.

Better parenting was high on the list. There simply is not enough parental
involvement in the lives of our children, and in some cases the parents are
actually enablers for the alcohol and drug abuse by their own children and
their friends.

Every weekend, our panel told us, there are parties across South
Mississippi where 50 to 60 and even more teens are partying with the
consent, sometimes even participation of parents who, in their attempt to
be "buddies" or "friends" with their own teens, are contributing to their
ultimate downfall.

Then when these parties - often involving some of the wealthiest and most
influential families - are busted, a massive effort is made to exert
influence to quash the prosecution of those involved.

Laws are weak and need strengthening, our experts said, but there was
widespread agreement that prosecution is generally weak in this area and
law enforcement would welcome a more vigorous partnership from this
important corner.

On the same day that the federal Drug Enforcement Administration issued
alarm about an "epidemic" of teen use of the drug ecstasy, our local team
was echoing their high level of concern.

South Mississippi is under assault by what amounts to a highly orchestrated
marketing blitz by purveyors of the drug who parachute into our midst and
peddle vast quantities of their club drugs to our youth, pocket their big
bucks and are gone, leaving us with the human debris.

There is a blatant and brazen aspect to these marketers of misery. After
our Red Ribbon series included a quote that cautioned users that the club
drugs were far from pure, one apparent dealer called the expert to defend
the quality of his product.

Even as communities are seeking to overcome these networks, news came to
dampen hope. On Thursday the state's top narcotics officer quit, saying
that lack of funding made his job impossible.

"The Legislature has continued to reduce funding to the point where we
really can't run this outfit this way," Don Strange Jr. said.

Strange, a Mississippi native who once headed the DEA's intelligence
division, said that when he arrived three years ago his bureau had 175
narcotics agents. Today, budget cutbacks have reduced the agent force to 120.

The department's budget has been trimmed from $15.3 million to $9 million
during the same period.

On the evening of Strange's resignation, citizens came together in Biloxi
to talk about the soaring production of methamphetamines locally and in the
state. Meth labs have especially plagued rural areas, and these create a
host of health dangers which are seriously impacting our communities.

So this week highlighted the several fronts on which we are fighting back.
It also points up the need for more fighters, more public concern, more money.

The enemy is still better organized and better financed than we are, and
that must change if we are to overcome them.