
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 23, 1990                   TAG: 9005230498
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TWO ARRESTS

PEOPLE WHO don't believe Western Virginia's drug problem amounts to much ought to review last week's newspaper headlines. Record amounts of crack cocaine were seized from people arriving at Roanoke Regional Airport on two successive days.

The arrests may slow the crack trade a little for a while, but crack pushers are not easily discouraged; their product is easy to produce and in big demand.

The arrests were the result of a sophisticated police investigation. The authorities deserve praise for their success. Still, they didn't get drug kingpins. Instead, the two arrested were at the bottom of the drug trade's chain of command: They were couriers, a teen-ager and a woman in her 20s.

Each was arrested after she got off a flight that arrived from New York. Each was carrying rocks of crack stuffed in her clothing. The 15-year-old arrested had $90,000 worth; the drugs carried by the young woman the next day were valued by police at $110,000.

There's no telling how much crack is spirited into Roanoke this way. Both people arrested last week had made it through airport security without having their drugs detected.

That dealers would use a 15-year-old to bring large quantities of drugs here says something about the sort of people the kingpins are. It also speaks to the special danger that the drug culture poses to young people. Their corruption becomes a source of huge profit.

Crack is not a drug for casual use. It's a highly addictive, concentrated form of cocaine. Part of its appeal to addicts is that it's cheap. Roanoke's appeal to crack pushers is that the drug will bring a higher price here than in larger cities.

Unfortunately, that profit motive continues to be a powerful incentive to dealers. Operation Caribbean Sunset, a cooperative enforcement effort by federal, state and local authorities last summer, was highly successful. The bust resulted in hundreds of arrests, including many drug dealers from Caribbean nations. But even it couldn't accomplish its goal: to rid Roanoke of crack.

Police may never do that, yet they must persist. They need the support of the entire community, and increased efforts must be mounted to reduce the demand for crack. The alternative is to watch helplessly as Roanoke goes the way of other cities invaded and conquered by the depravity of drugs. Crack brings down its users fast. It also brings down their communities.

by CNB