SALE DAY FOR DRUG LOOT

Drug dealers in Cape Girardeau County had best take notice of what happened in Jackson last week: The state auctioned a car it seized from a woman who used it to transport methamphetamine and marijuana from Scott City to Cape Girardeau for her drug-dealing boyfriend.

It was the first time in the county that a vehicle seized because it was used to transport drugs has been auctioned under a state law that became effective in 1993. Public schools in the county share the money from the sales, and drug dealers not only risk going to prison but losing a vehicle.

It is a good law patterned after one that has been used effectively for years by the federal government. The federal law also provides for the public sale of any personal property it can prove was acquired with money derived from drug sales. The money from those sales goes to various law enforcement agencies to fight drug-dealing.

The seizure of cars used to haul drugs is just one tool at the disposal of law enforcement agencies trying to make a dent in local drug dealing.