TOP COP NO STRANGER TO DRUG ABUSE

Mississippi's top cop is leading the state's war on drugs because he saw
how drugs and alcohol destroyed lives on a college campus.

Don Strange, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, has spent
more than 30 years fighting drugs and drug abusers.

Today, he is having a profound impact on drug traffic in Mississippi.

"We target the dealers," said Strange. "By arresting drug traffickers, we
are cutting off the supply for the users."

Strange, who retired from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration as
DEA's Chief of Intelligence, came home to Mississippi to combat one of its
biggest problems.

That problem is the use of methamphetamines.

"Although we have had a 400 percent increase in meth seizures in the last
two years, the problem is still escalating. Methamphetamines are cheap,
easy to make and they give a person the high they are seeking," said Strange.

The bureau is combatting this rise in drug traffic using agents who are
certified, equipped and ready for action.

"Mississippi is at the top nationwide when it comes to having
methamphetamine lab certified agents," said Strange.

When it comes to drugs on college campuses, the bureau stays in the
background, but not completely out of sight.

"We let campus authorities do their job," he said, "But we know that
dealers get to be pretty good at a pretty young age."

The fastest growing drug on college campuses is ecstasy or club drugs.

"The problem with these drugs is that kids don't know what they are using.
They hear it referred to by its street name, but don't have a clue what's
in it," said Strange.

"That's what happened to the kids who were killed in Plano, Texas, several
years ago. They bought a drug under the street name not knowing what it
was, and about 20 of them died from a heroine overdose."

Strange said that college drug use influenced his decision to become
involved in drug enforcement.

"I saw so many people, some on the campus of the University of Southern
Mississippi and some of them friends of mine, who chose the wrong road and
ruined their lives. People in my class were getting thrown out of school,
and ultimately destroying their lives because of drugs," he said.

"What we try to do is win it with the kids," he said.

The bureau holds town meetings in cities around the state to educate people
as to the consequences of drugs and the devastation they can cause.

"We were at one meeting in Sanford and I had finished my presentation,"
said Strange, "And a lady stood up and told how methamphetamines had
affected her son."

Strange said the lady told how she asked authorities to arrest her son to
keep him from killing himself through the use of drugs.

"She told how his teeth had fallen out, and he was standing in the living
room slicing his arms open with a knife," said Strange, "He was explaining
to his mother that he had to get the bugs off him."

"That's the the way this stuff affects people," Strange said.