Pubdate: Mon, 17 Dec 2007
Source: Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Mon, 17 Dec 2007
Copyright: 2007 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1425/a10.html
Author: Douglas D. Brown

PUTTING AN END TO DRUG SALES

Re: "Drug conference attendees see bleak picture," Page 1, Dec. 9.

Sunday's article quoted a Florida police official who described his 
frustration with the "revolving door" of drug arrests.

"We were going to the same houses, arresting the same people, getting 
the same results," he said. "We cannot arrest our way out of the problem."

He is correct that arrests alone will not reverse the prevalence of 
illegal drugs. That will happen only when we eliminate the drug marketplaces.

Under the leadership of the late Mayor Louis Tallo and Assistant 
Chief Kenny Corkern, the city of Hammond in 2002 virtually eliminated 
the sale of crack cocaine within city limits.

It used a civil nuisance law, La. R.S. 13:4712, et seq., to get civil 
judgments of closure for up to five years against property owners who 
knowingly allowed crack cocaine and other drugs to be sold on the property.

Owners who didn't know were instead informed of the problem and given 
a chance to eliminate the drug dealers before action was taken 
against the property.

This law is court-tested, constitutional and it eliminates the 
safe-haven marketplaces for drug sales.

If citizens want their parish president, district attorney, sheriff 
or mayor to get control of the drug problem in their community, they 
should ask these officials why they are not aggressively using the 
civil nuisance law.

Douglas D. Brown

Former Assistant City Attorney

Hammond
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