DEPUTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY HONORED FOR ANTI-DRUG WORK

The evils of methamphetamine are spelled out weekly in Northwest
newspaper, television and radio stories that detail busts in our
cities, towns and back-country.

A frequently neglected story, according to Kootenai County Deputy
Prosecuting Attorney James Reierson and his boss, Bill Douglas, is
the fact that marijuana is also an illegal drug that's plentiful in
this part of the country.

And it isn't, they say, the harmless high depicted by its users.

Reierson recently received the Drug Enforcement Administration's
Outstanding Achievement Award for his successful prosecution of a
major marijuana trafficking organization.

He's also the recipient of an Air Force Meritorious Service Medal for
his work as an Air Force Reserve lawyer with the 92nd Air Refueling
Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base.

As proof of his allegations against the popular street drug, Reierson
offers a handful of news clippings detailing the violence sometimes
associated with the illegal trade of marijuana.

The most recent clips relate the tale of a Spokane drug deal that
erupted into shooting on Jan. 29, leaving an alleged marijuana dealer
dead and two associates wounded.

"It's an evil drug," Reierson said, "a 'gateway' that often leads
users to more powerful drugs. And it's been cultivated over the years
to the point that now it's very powerful in and of itself."

Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Douglas echoes Reierson:
"Marijuana kills motivation. That affects users' work, their
parenting skills, their home life and their studies," he says.

The DEA obviously agrees with the local prosecutors' assessments.
Reierson's prosecution helped bust an Oregon-Coeur d'Alene marijuana
connection and led ultimately to his Department of Justice award.

A federal sting operation resulted in three arrests and the seizure
of 10 pounds of marijuana two years ago. It was managed by the DEA
through an informant, a Coos Bay, Ore., grower, who agreed to work
undercover after his arrest by drug agents.

As a result of the federal investigation and Reierson's prosecution,
Sean Nelson, a 22-year-old Coeur d'Alene man, was sentenced to 71/2
years in prison following his trial in July. A second defendant
pleaded guilty to a charge of possession with intent to sell and is
on probation.

A Kootenai County grand jury acquitted the third man involved in the
transaction after his co-defendants refused to testify against him.

In addition to securing the convictions, the government seized a
cache of drugs with a street value of up to $90,000.

According to John Bott, agent in charge of the DEA's Seattle office,
the case was originally presented to the U.S. attorney in Portland.
Kootenai County accepted the case and Reierson was assigned to it
after the federal government declined to prosecute.

The assistant prosecutor's Air Force award also touches on his
expertise in the field of illegal drugs. The citation that
accompanies his award details Reierson's many activities in support
of the active- duty military.

It includes mention of his "excellent initiative that resulted in a
landmark agreement with the Regional Drug Task Force to respond to
any suspected drug manufacturing site that will ensure proper
evidence collection and hazardous materials cleanup."

Now a "weekend warrior," Maj. Reierson is a veteran of nine years of
active duty in the Navy, four of those as a submarine radioman. He
also served five years' active duty as an Air Force lawyer following
his 1981 graduation from the University of Arkansas Law School.

A Spokane native and son of a World War II Army Air Corps flight
surgeon, Dr. Pete Reierson, the 51-year-old attorney joined the
Kootenai County Prosecutor's Office in 1999 following eight years as
a deputy prosecutor in Walla Walla.

Reierson served as a public defender in King County, as a trial
attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and worked in the
Arkansas attorney general's office's litigation division.

He also ran unsucessfully for a Spokane County District Court
judgeship in 1998.