DRUG ARRESTS ARE APPRECIATED

I want to thank Sheriff Donald Smith and his investigators for their recent
arrests of alleged teen-age drug dealers near the Mahopac High School. As a
resident of Rolling Greens and a member of the Coalition for the
Preservation of Rolling Greens, I have for some time been aware of, and
concerned by, the drug use that occurs in and around the high school. It's
been an open secret for years, and the sheriff deserves great credit for
acknowledging the problem and acting quickly to address it.

Most of our high school students are fine young men and women, and a
concerted effort to catch the few who aren't will go a long way toward
solving a problem that's been neglected for too long. Education and
programs like DARE are important, but nothing beats good, old-fashioned
enforcement. The sheriff seems to agree.

High school is really the end of our children's adolescence. It's probably
the last time in their lives that they will be so free of any
responsibility except to learn and grow, yet those years can vanish
completely in a cloud of marijuana smoke. Other, harder drugs can take away
all their years to come forever.

Three arrests aren't going to solve our problems, but an ongoing program of
undercover buy-and-bust operations might. It would certainly, as the
sheriff said during his campaign, "take things to the next level." Our town
has always been a good place to raise kids. It just got better. Thank you,
Sheriff Smith.

Penny Mongelli, Mahopac