SHERIFF NO 'DRUG WARRIOR'

I ordinarily do not respond to letters to the editor, however I feel the
need to set the record straight on this one.

On June 6, the Northwest Arkansas Times printed a letter from Georgia Lance
of Elkins, who indicated what she understood from a newspaper article in
which the county judge and myself reported as responding differently to the
question of what to do about the methamphetamine problem in our area.

Ms. Lance's letter said that I was a "drug warrior" and the judg ge was
more contemporary with his approach to the problem, in which he indicated
what we need is to look at the root of the problem or why we as a society
feel the need to alter our personality with drugs.

Let me first say I have conversed with the judge in-depth several times on
this very subject and I agree with Judge Hunton 100 percent. I also gave
the same answer to the reporter who interviewed me. In addition to this, I
told the reporter as the county's chief law enforcement officer I am sworn
and expected to enforce the law, which includes drug law, both in spirit
and in letter. The spirit of the law dictates that I will fight all illegal
drugs and prevent their use and distribution. The letter of the law, while
it has good intentions is full of loopholes, that the drug dealers use to
get around the spirit of the law. Let me put it another way, as long as our
friends and neighbors keep calling me and telling me they have a meth lab
next door to them and wanting to know what I am going to do about it
(because there are laws you know) I have no choice but to act with the
tools given to me by the legislators that we elect and from the people that
we work for. These tools include money, officers and jails. I do not like
it any more than you do, because I pay taxes also.

However, until we as a society change this through our elected
representatives, the laws they make and the way we as a society think, I am
still obligated to enforce the law and try to close the loopholes that
exist and prevent law enforcement from doing just that. Nothing would
thrill me more than to prevent on the front end the tragedies we in law
enforcement have seen as a result of methamphetamine, horrible things that
most people cannot imagine. Instead we in law enforcement have to be the
ones who clean it up on the back end. Therefore, you see I do not have the
luxury of seeing only one side of this terrible saga.

Unfortunately newspapers being newspapers, they don't always report the
entire interview, but only the contrast in opinions of the people being
interviewed and I can't change that either.

Steve Whitmill

Washington County sheriff