

Drug issues still making headlines here

5:04 PM, Jan. 25, 2014  |  Comments
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Two drug related stories caught our attention last week.

First, police reported the arrest of another man from Detroit, accused of selling heroin in Marion.

We have reported many times about drug dealers coming from Chicago and Detroit and other big cities to sell their deadly products here.

We have heard calls for tougher sentences to be given to out-of-towners. There are some who think if we had a reputation as a place where drug dealers were dealt with swiftly and harshly, big city dealers would avoid us.

The flaw in the theory is that drug dealers will be here as long as there is a market. Drug dealers aren't, by nature, ambitious people. The image of the "pusher" who lures innocents into becoming junkies isn't something very common in real life.

Drug dealers go for the easy score, they search out markets that exist and that can be exploited with little effort.

That's why you hear about big city dealers on our small town streets.

A bountiful market trumps any worry about law enforement.

The other story was about a plan to start voluntary drug testing at Marion City Schools. Parents would sign their children up for the program. It wouldn't be limited to athletes or students enrolled in extra-curricular activities.

Students would then be subject to random tests. The results of the test would be kept between health professionals and parents - no law enforcement.

The idea is the tests would be a way for parents to open up a dialogue about drug use with their children and children would get an opportunity to be exposed to the importance of living a drug-free life.

No one has a life ambition of being a drug addict. But, it happens all too often. And, no one thinks their child is going to go down the road of a junkie. But, that happens too.

Talking about drugs early and often could be the way we begin to whittle down the marketplace for those out-of-town dealers who would then be force to find their prey elsewhere.

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