HEARTFELT THANKS FOR MIKE FISHER'S DRUG CRACKDOWN

Defense attorney Phillip Masorti's column March 16 made several derogatory
comments and insinuations about my county and the actions of Attorney
General Mike Fisher in trying to help my county.

I am the district attorney of Clinton County. I do not want big-time drug
dealers in my county. I welcome the help of anyone -- private citizen,
local police, state police, state Attorney General, federal agents, or the
U.S. Attorney -- who can help us achieve that goal.

To fight a $3 million drug ring using Clinton County as one of its areas of
operation is beyond the scope of the resources we have available to us
here. The allegations reflect how widespread geographically these
activities were. Clearly, this is exactly the type of operation that must
be subject to the tools and resources available to the state attorney general.

I regret that Masorti has adopted the effete snobbery of the "it's just
marijuana" crowd who have abandoned their roots. I would be surprised if
his grandfather would not be totally embarrassed and disappointed by
Masorti's characterization of his "roots" as being the "armpit" of
Pennsylvania. As one who has elected to remain and fight to make my
community better, let me assure Masorti and his ilk that I thank Mike
Fisher from the bottom of my heart for not treating Lock Haven and the rest
of Clinton County as the "armpit" of Pennsylvania.

Masorti opines that Attorney General Fisher had never previously been to
Lock Haven. I have worked hard and been successful in getting statewide
candidates and office holders to come to Clinton County. Mike Fisher has
been here in Clinton County no less than a dozen times, the first time in
the mid-1980s and most recently a month ago. I know of no other statewide
office holder or candidate in the history of the commonwealth who has been
to Clinton County more frequently than Mike Fisher.

Whether it was how well he knew Clinton County as a result of how often he
has been here or simply the size and scope of this case that drew Mike
Fisher's attention to this case, I don't care. I am just glad Mike Fisher
got involved and stopped it.

Masorti chose to ignore the cocaine that was involved. The "just marijuana"
group always does. I will not. Those of us in the trenches fighting this
fight find the use of alcohol, and then marijuana, and then the more
addicting drugs such as cocaine, crack, Ecstacy, Oxycontin, and heroin is a
pattern all to frequently followed by our youth. A $3 million drug business
only exists if it has customers, many of whom are our youth. Again, thank
you, Mike Fisher, for caring enough about our youth to do something about
it. Thank you for not taking the "it's the armpit of Pennsylvania and
forget them" approach.

I welcome the help of anyone who cares about my county enough to send the
message to the drug dealers who want to ruin the lives of the people in my
county to stay out and don't spread your evil here. We are hurting
economically because of a series of lost industries. We're fighting back.
We don't need the help of drug dealers and those who defend their evil
practices.

Finally, Masorti complains that this was nothing more than a political
exercise to get Mike Fisher free political advertising. Fisher won't have
an election with an opponent for eight more months. Most surveys show that
people historically don't pay attention to any election more than a week
before Election Day. If that were Fisher's motivation, then his timing was
terrible.

On the other hand, Masorti is in a business, as was noted in that article.
Drug dealers are potential clients. Masorti's column wasn't an unpaid
advertisement, now was it?