Sheriff's Office makes an insane proposal | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Albert Einstein is reported to have once said: "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

    At the August County Commissioner's meeting Chief Deputy Kit Campbell made a presentation that concluded by asking for approval by the board for the Sheriff's Department to apply for/receive a grant to fight drugs. You can get the details in the video below:



    Commentary

    You will note in the video that Commissioner Hood Richardson wanted to be sure that the Board saw a job description for the deputy that will be hired to run this grant. Apparently they have not yet developed such a description. He also asked for "metrics" to be shared with the board on a periodic basis to enable them to see what is actually being accomplished; both reasonable requests in our opinion.

    But there are two things that trouble us about this issue.

    First, the Sheriff's Office obviously has little or no data now to show the need for this position. All of the justification given by Mr. Campbell was anecdotal. No hard numbers. So we don't really know what the problem they are trying to solve involves. One thing we would like to know is, if this position is going to relieve the current narcotics squad from chasing prescription abusers will it result in more arrests and convictions of the "hard drug" dealers.

    We think the glaring deficiency in what hazy information the public gets about crime in Beaufort County is that we can't remember a "press release" of where the Sheriff's Office has caught any major suppliers of drugs to the local scene. We did recently see such in Pamlico County where they busted an apparent major supply line that came into Beaufort County. Nothing was mentioned in those reports about the Beaufort Sheriff's Office being involved in it. We checked through our partner print publication, the County Compass and found out that the bust in Pamlico County resulted from Federal narcotic enforcement in Arizona. That caused us to wonder just how effective local efforts are in stemming the drug supply line. We've never seen or heard of any kind of systematic plan the Sheriff's Office uses to address the local drug problem other than catching street dealers. But where is "Mr. Big?"

    We did talk to two health care providers about this problem. Both laughed at the idea that a deputy will make much difference, other than to hassle local pharmacists and doctors. "There is already an effective enforcement system in place and it apparently works pretty well. The only major case has been the Tayloe Hospital Pharmacy case, and that came before the current system was fully implemented," we were told. Pharmacists and doctors have all received extensive training in enforcement system according to our sources.

    But that is really not what strikes us about the presentation and discussion of this grant.

    We think Mr. Richardson was right on target in asking for hard data. But we'll tell him what it will say before they even begin to collect it. This grant will not work. It will not eliminate the prescription drug problem any more than the current elaborate data base management system they now use. It will not make a dent in the hard drug market. It will not even solve the latest craze--synthetic drugs, a.k.a. bath salts.

    Why? Simply because there is too much money involved.

    What we have done in this country is create an entire industry that thrives off of the drug trade. Both on the "legal" side and the illegal side. Millions of people make their living on drugs. It is a major reason unemployment is so high in the black community. Too many people know/think they can make more money in drugs than by getting a job and working. We call it the "Gold Chain Syndrome." Any parent of a black teenager, particulary a male teenager, knows what we're talking about.

    So we spend billions of dollars on enforcement and the problem continues. In fact, it get worse, not better. We would suggest it will always continue as long as there is money--Big Money--to be made in illegal drugs. And these "we've got to do something" people will just continue to do the same thing we've been doing--except maybe more of it, as this grant illustrates--and the results will be the same. The metrics, if they are accurate, that will come from this will show that.

    So, what's the answer? We don't know. Some suggest we should legalize "drugs" like we have alcohol. We can see the appeal in that approach, but we have serious reservations about it.

    What we don't know is how to stop the problem. What we do know is that what we're doing is not stopping the problem. We do think the crux of the solution has to come in taking the profit motive out of the drug scene. As long as young punks think they can make more money selling drugs than doing honest work we will always have the problem. We need to find a way to take the monetary appeal away from ...and that's a big part of the problem. From whom? We already have a huge constituency that is dependent on the drug culture. And many of them are law enforcement people. This grant will simply add one more to the local cadre.

    We don't think Beaufort County can solve its drug problem in isolation from other communities. So we think it is past time for the federal and state governments to accept the simple proposition that the War on Drugs has been lost. What we've been trying has not worked. Maybe, just maybe, we need to try something different.