Pubdate: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC) Copyright: 2004 Evening Post Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.charleston.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/567 Author: Bill Upshur INTERCEPTING DRUGS Your recent article about Charleston police who go to Santee looking for potential drug traffickers on I-95 exposes one aspect of the drug problem that helps keep drug use so damaging and a criminal offence. The Charleston Police Department has taken advantage of a part of the rip-off from the War on Drugs. It is not only a big moneymaker for the traffickers, it's a big moneymaker for the police and all of the drug enforcement folks. If our city hired 200 to 300 hundred more police officers, they could be sent to Florida, New York, the Mexican border and anywhere that drug interception could occur, and make our police the richest in the nation, along with an increase in the cost of drugs, the number of traffickers and the related crimes associated with the drug underworld. BILL UPSHUR Johns Island - --- MAP posted-by: Beth