MOVE DRUG PROBLEM UP ON COMMUNITY AGENDA

A community's agenda can't be defined as a static roster of things that must and can be done. Instead, it is a fluid, highly dynamic list of priorities, the give-and-take of which is generated by advancing knowledge, available money and the shift of popular will. A week ago, the problem of crack cocaine stood murky and detached to most people in Cape Girardeau. Today, we believe it stands as something more specific, more serious, more immediate. As an item on this community's agenda, we believe the drug problem should move up the list.

During the last week, the South~~east Missourian, in a joint investigative project with KFVS-TV, published a series of articles detailing the crack cocaine problem in Cape Girardeau. Probably, little of what was published in the "Zero Tolerance" series surprised those involved in law enforcement or the local judiciary; they've seen the problem and its angry results. For many other people, the stories were surely eye openers, jarring the notion that the damage of drugs is isolated to the user.

In fact, among the surprises brought forward by the "Zero Tolerance" project was the staggering number of lives the local drug problem touches. A crack user very often becomes addicted to the drug. Though crack is relatively inexpensive in individual measure, the body's chemical demand runs up quite a tab; robbery is often the result when the bill comes due. Bad-check writing, shoplifting and burglaries are offshoots.

Domestic violence increases in households where cocaine users reside, and assaults of all types seem to flourish in the drug trade. Weapons are commonplace in this illegal, cash-purchases-only enterprise, and gunplay is not unusual on the 400 block of Good Hope Street, the hub of local drug trafficking. Authorities believe that drugs are the common element in at least eight murders that have involved Cape Girardeau people in the last 18 months.

If this isn't dangerous and devastating enough, consider the residual effects of drug use. Those who have never been close to an illegal drug are victimized by thieves. Stores hit by shoplifters and forgers must suffer commercially or pass their losses along to law-abiding customers. Taxpayers assume the burden for additional law enforcement and judicial demands. Users receiving forms of public assistance perpetuate their own distress and that of governments, particularly where health-care costs are involved.

And witness the heartache that takes place in a courtroom when sentences are handed down in drug-related cases. Not only the drug user or seller is affected, but so are the parents, the spouses, the children: What is the educational handicap for a child growing up in a single-parent house~hold, while the other parent serves a drug-related prison sentence? The ripple effect of substance abuse staggers the imagination.

It is a sweeping network of misery, broadened in recent years by the growing availability and new-found popularity of crack.

What must be done? First, it must be recognized that the situation on the 400 block of Good Hope Street is unacceptable. Located less than 1,000 feet from an elementary school, an open-air market exists for the sales of crack cocaine. As a positive action, some buildings are targeted for demolition in that area, but the pressure must be kept on by law enforcement authorities. In communities where this problem has been successfully combated, crack dealers have been made to loosen their foothold on a given area and have been sent on the run. That must happen in Cape Girardeau.

Notwithstanding its felonious nature, cocaine distribution is a business, cocaine dealers are business people and normal business principles apply. What the community must do is make the business unwelcome and hope the proprietors remove it to a more accommodating market.

Above all, community awareness of the depth of this problem and corresponding concern must be increased. Hopefully, the week-long series of stories generated in this newspaper and on KFVS contributed to a growing understanding. There is good news: business owners in the Haarig district are working to improve Good Hope Street, educators are preaching the message to children that illegal drugs are harmful and the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, other law enforcement agencies and the courts are making a dent in the cocaine trade.

Still, more must be done and others must join the effort; the problem can not be ignored or passed off to another party.

It would be disappointing if the city council does not take up this issue when it next meets. If the elected leaders of this community don't lend support to cleaning up this situation, how can they inspire others to take up the fight?

It would be disappointing if the chamber of commerce, representing the business community, and other merchant organizations fail to see how this problem, if left unaddressed, will slowly deteriorate business conditions here.

It would be disappointing if the ministers of Cape Girardeau, to whom so many look for guidance, do not turn to their congregations with a message that turning away from this problem only serves to foster it.

It would be disappointing if civic organizations, whose ongoing good work enhances the quality of life in this community, don't recognize their efforts ultimately mean little if drug dealers are allowed to feel at home here.

Cape Girardeau can not solve the drug problems of the nation. However, Cape Girardeau has within its reach a solution to its own drug problem. It is called involvement. The drug problem must be moved higher on the community agenda.