WE MUSTN'T STOP FIGHT ON DRUGS

Our local drug dealers would appear to have much in common with Middle East
terrorists and cockroaches.

No matter how many you get rid of, more and more will take their places.

It can get downright frustrating, and we often feel we are fighting a
losing battle. But we can't stop fighting, because if we do, the
cockroaches, human and otherwise, will win.

The largest drug bust in area history, "Operation Crack Down," culminating
on May 5, 2000, was a wonderful example of excellent police work and
cooperation by the Oneonta Police Department, state police, Delaware County
Drug Task Force, Otsego County Sheriff's Department, U.S. Marshals Service,
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the state National Guard
Counter Drug Task Force.

Perhaps by New York City standards, it wasn't gigantic, but in our rural
area, it certainly caught our attention.

About 120 officers seized 900 grams of cocaine worth $120,000, six vehicles
and a number of guns in the city of Oneonta and other parts of Otsego and
Delaware counties.

The vermin had been at it since at least 1994, and had drug sales amounting
to about $3 million, according to federal officials.

OK, it wasn't the French Connection, but the arrests made a lot of local
folks feel better about things for at least a little while.

On the plus side, 31 people have already been sentenced. Some mandatory
jail terms range from 10 months to 30 years. The last drug dealer in line
is Diogenes Rosario, who is expected to spend the next 30 years in prison
after sentencing Feb. 22.

We're not talking about people going behind bars for smoking a joint. This
was a conspiracy involving the distribution of crack cocaine. These are
people who didn't care whether a child or pregnant woman smoked their
poison, as long as the money was there.

But have the arrests really done anything to stem the drug tide?

"We accomplished what we set out to do," said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Miroslav Lovric. "The lead and top people in the organization are getting
or have gotten substantial jail time."

"On the whole, the investigation was a big success," said Oneonta Police
Detective William Davis. "We did not get everybody because others have
already moved in to replace them, but we got some of the major players."

We are kidding ourselves if we think that a teen-ager would have a hard
time buying crack cocaine tonight if he wanted to.

But even if the big drug bust was only a hiccup in the dealers' assault on
society, then it was a darned good hiccup. Until we find a way to stem
demand for this poison, then we shall have to keep after those cockroaches,
at least until they are afraid to come out in the daylight.