DEA agent says enforcement, education, rehabilitation keys to solving drug problems –
cartel members took a man and used a knife to slice every part of his body but they didn’t kill him,” he said. “They they staked him to the ground and let the buzzards eat him.”
The Jefferson County Drug Court celebrated National Drug Court Month on Friday, and the supervisory special agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Arkansas said that while enforcement of drug laws helps, education and rehabilitation are also needed.
Anthony Lemons, who is based in Little Rock, was the featured speaker for the event, which was held on the steps of the Jefferson County Courthouse.
He said that when he was first assigned to Arkansas in 2000, the biggest threat facing Arkansas was methamphetamine, produced from what he called mom-and-pop labs at homes, hotel rooms, rental properties and the like, which produced a few ounces of methamphetamine at a time.
“It was extremely dangerous,” Lemons said. “During that time, you would see a lot of explosions, a lot of fires, and they destroyed a lot of lives and a lot of families.”
A few years later, Lemons said crack cocaine investigations picked up, and with the crack came a lot of violence.
“In Little Rock, there were drug dealers killing drug dealers over territory,” he said. “We had mobile enforcement teams and we came to Pine Bluff twice because of crack problems. We started to work those cases involving gangs and in one case, solved three homicides. We had a wire tap and a guy confessed to the three.”
Methamphetamine is back now, but Lemons said that unlike the old days when it was produced in mom-and-pop labs, it’s now produced in “super labs” controlled by the cartels.
“Mom-and-pop labs were producing a few ounces,” Lemons said. “These super labs are producing hundreds of pounds. The cartels are here now.”
He said agents are working to combat the drugs by trying to find the sources, using things like video and wire taps.
“I remember seeing one video where cartel members took a man and used a knife to slice every part of his body but they didn’t kill him,” he said. “They they staked him to the ground and let the buzzards eat him.”
Along with methamphetamine, Lemons said Arkansas, like most other states, has a major problem with prescription drugs, explaining that the recent drug take back event collected 25,000 pounds of prescription drugs in the state “before they got in the hands of our kids.”
As the supervisory agent for the DEA, Lemons said, “I want to arrest every person who sells drugs, but I can’t do it by myself.”
“I can’t arrest them all, so we’ve got to educate people about drugs and what they can do,” he said.
Before proclaiming the month of May Drug Court Month, Jefferson County Judge Dutch King said, “This problem didn’t happen overnight and it’s not going to be solved overnight.”
“It’s going to take all of us working together to fix it,” King said.
Circuit Judge Berlin C. Jones, who has administered the drug court since it began with five people in 2004, said one of the goals is to build stronger individuals, which builds stronger families, which builds a stronger community, and a stronger community builds a better city, better county and better place to live.
One of the requirements of drug court is that every participant has to either be working or getting an education, and Jones said currently, only three to five of the 61 participants are not working.
Seeing State Sen. Stephanie Flowers in the crowd, Jones thanked her for her help in getting the project that uses people on probation and parole to tear down derelict houses in Pine Bluff.
“We’ve got five slots, and as our people move out of that and into the workforce, we fill them again, so instead of just five slots, we’ve got more,” he said. “People are working instead of walking the streets looking for something they can steal.”
Filed under: General Problems
When their are ,”turn in,” they take the drugs/medicine to your local ,”waastemanagement /recycling facility that has a incinerator,,Thee agent or police officer will stand their and watch thee employee burn the medicines/drugs,,,,I know because my husband works at 1,,Mary
What kinds of drugs were turned in? In Florida our Sherrif’s department advertises that you can bring in ANY unused or outdated prescription to be safely disposed of at their offices. This can mean blood pressure meds, insulin, antibiotics, or just about anything. Especially in warmer states where retirees and seniors live and pass away and their families often need to safely dispose of the departed’s medications. This article seems to imply that all the meds collected were drugs with street value that drug cartels would otherwise be pushing onto eager youths. Quite a leap. It would be interesting to know the percentages of each class of drugs collected.
But you gotta wonder where the cops and DEA get the drugs both prescription and illegal heroin and cocaine and meth to use to set up the drug buys….not like they get a legitimate script from a pharmacy for a supply to use…no..they take it outta the seized evidence supply and the “Take back collections” of sorted out controlled substances they don’t have the funding to send out to be destroyed. Think about that…it’s not they really want it off the street, they just found a source to use it for themselves without using their budgets and then you see the articles about the parties and the addicted cops
bottom line,,our courts system our easier to manipulate, our big media’s are bought and paid for,,and Doc’s have moneyBottum line its easier to go after our doctors,,never mind its genocide+torture to all medically ill w/painful medical conditions!!!maryw