DRUG HOUSES SEIZED BY STATE STILL OPERATING, COUNTY SAYS

DETROIT (AP) - The county prosecutor is suing the state for allegedly
failing to control drug houses it seized because of unpaid taxes.

Twenty of the seized houses were later involved in drug raids, Wayne County
Prosecutor Michael Duggan said. He has filed lawsuits trying to get the
houses under control or demolished.

"If we don't get the state to shut down its drug houses, in another six
months you are going to have all the drug dealing done out of state-owned
houses," Duggan said.

State officials say they want to put an end to drug houses as well. But in
a hearing Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court about one of the houses, a
lawyer with the Michigan attorney general's office said the state has
sovereign immunity from such suits.

As many as 10,000 Detroit homes are owned by the state.