VETERAN LAWMAN GOING AFTER BIGTIME DRUG DEALERS

Don Strange didn't mind coming out of retirement to lead the fight
against drugs in his home state of Mississippi.

Strange, a native of Meridian, was recently appointed by Gov. Ronnie
Musgrove to become executive director of the Mississippi Bureau of
Narcotics.

"I've been all over the country. Even though I believed at the time
what I was doing was helping keep some drugs off the streets of towns
in Mississippi, I just couldn't really see it because I was so far
removed from the state," the veteran lawman told the Kiwanis Club of
Laurel.

"But by coming back in this position, I was excited about having a
direct influence on what happened here in the state in relation to
the drug problem. It's really good to be back."

Strange emphasized that the procedures, protocols and administrative
initiatives he has implemented are all geared toward ridding
Mississippi of drug pushers and traffickers. In a very
straight-forward manner, Strange said he would much rather get the 30
or 40 bigtime drug traffickers off the streets than arrest 1,000
small-time drug dealers who roam the streets.

His reasoning was simple.

"We have more drug dealers in county jails across the state than at
any other time, and the drug problem is still just that, a problem.
If we could get the big guys off the streets, that would eliminate
the flow of drugs into the state to begin with," he said.

"I have been asking the state Legislature for more money and the
shortage of funds from the state is well documented. But I view the
drug problem so vital to the overall health of the state that without
the work of our office and that of the sheriff's and chief's of
police, the state would be in a much worse situation," Strange said.

Drugs, according to Strange, affect everything from the students to
the families to overall crime rates and medical expenses in the
state. Alleviate the drug problem and a vast number of other problems
evaporate, he said.

"In order to do this, we need funding and that funding has been cut
for the second year in a row," Strange said. "We are making progress
in many areas, like increasing our meth lab seizures by 400 percent
in one year."