MISSISSIPPI LOSING TOP DRUG FIGHTER

Mississippi's top narcotics officer, who says lack of funding will hamper
his agency's ability to fight drugs, plans to work his last day today and
canceled a speech Thursday night at a Biloxi forum.

"The Legislature has continued to reduce funding to the point where we
really can't run this outfit this way," said Don Strange Jr., Mississippi
Bureau of Narcotics director, from the bureau's Hattiesburg office Thursday.

"It makes no sense to hire someone with federal credentials to do the job
when you can't give them the money to do anything," said Strange, a native
Mississippian who had retired as the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration's chief of intelligence. "If I had known they weren't
serious about it, I wouldn't have taken the job."

Bureau assistant director of special operations, Dennis Wood, stood in for
Strange at the Biloxi drug forum, one of several held around the state to
publicize the bureau's funding plight and drug-fighting role.

Strange delivered a noncommittal resignation letter to Gov. Ronnie Musgrove
on Wednesday. Musgrove shortly will announce his replacement, said Lee Ann
Mayo, the governor's spokeswoman.

Since he arrived almost three years ago, Strange said, the bureau has gone
from 175 to 120 narcotics agents to cover 82 counties. Last year, it sold
80 cars to save money and this year has parked 45 more, he said, leaving
some agents to travel two or three to a car.

Its general-fund budget has been trimmed from $15.3 million to $9 million.
Strange said payroll alone is $8.5 million and rent will eat up the rest of
the money. Although most of its money comes from the general fund, Strange
said the bureau is able to pay informants and buy drugs undercover with
money seized from drug dealers, and does get some federal grant money, but
can't spend it on salaries.

Strange said he decided to resign earlier this week when legislators
proposed a bureau budget of $9.7 million for next year. Musgrove's proposal
wasn't much higher, at $10 million. The next fiscal year begins July 1.

"We've held on pretty good up until now," Strange said. "Over the next year
is where you are going to see a major decline in productivity."

Strange denied earlier media reports that he resigned partly because he was
angry that his son, Chris Strange, had been fired in October from his
investigator's job with the state attorney general's Public Integrity Office.

Legislators acknowledged Thursday that the bureau is underfunded, but many
department budgets have been cut because revenue has failed to meet expenses.

"We're going to work on getting them more money," said Rep. Frances
Fredericks, D-Gulfport. "But I'm not promising that we're going to be able
to find any more for them."

State Sen. Deborah Dawkins, D-Pass Christian, praised Strange for focusing
on the elimination of methamphetamine labs in rural areas such as George
County. "He's a good man," she said, "and he's done a lot of good at that
agency."

Under Strange's leadership, the bureau dismantled several drug
organizations. Strange also secured a $1 million federal grant for the
state's first methamphetamine initiative and found funding for a helicopter
in a successful marijuana-eradication program.