SUNBURY — High-profile arrests of low-level drug dealers are an effective way to get at the root of a community problem, Valley drug counselors and law enforcement officials agree.
In the past year, Pennsylvania has spent about $2 million funding drug task forces that operate in 64 of the commonwealth’s 67 counties.
“It’s as effective as can be, given the resources that are available,” Northumberland County Adult Probation Chief John Wondoloski said of the large drug arrest roundups that occur several times a year in the county.
The joint Northumberland-Montour Task Force received $77,800 this fiscal year and made 53 arrests between January and June.
The most recent drug sweep occurred Oct. 5 in the Shamokin and Coal Township areas, with the arrest of 31 people following an eight-month investigation into sales of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs.
Several of those arrested have prior records for drug, alcohol and theft-related offenses.
Drug task forces controlled by county district attorneys and the state attorney general are “the best bargain in law enforcement,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office spokesman Kevin J. Harley.
“They expand the troops on the ground and street-level drug dealing is their main focus.”
Wondoloski, a former state police lieutenant, said the aim of the state-funded drug task forces is to get at the street-level drug dealers and divert some offenders into court-ordered treatment.
The hope is that substance abusers will be rehabilitated and the local crime rate will decrease.
In some cases, information developed from investigations that can last many months leads to mid- to upper level drug dealers being nabbed.
“These are about quality of life issues,” Harley said. “You need to pull that string (low-level dealers)” to get at the major pushers of contraband.
“Statistics vary on this, but most people agree as much as 75 percent of crimes are drug-related. Drugs are the impetus for a lot of other crimes.”
And it’s small communities, like Sunbury, Shamokin and Selinsgrove, that are coping with thefts, burglaries and other crimes by offenders who need to support drug habits, Wondoloski said.
Employing task forces to investigate and ferret out low-level drug dealers is “the only way law enforcement can attack the problem,” Wondoloski said. “There is no other way to do it.”
George Florey, Northumberland County Drug and Alcohol administrator, concedes that law enforcement has few tools to deal with the problem of substance abuse.
Dramatic, high-profile arrests give an offender an opportunity to get clean through participation in treatment court.
“The treatment courts have turned people’s lives around,” Florey said, adding, “You can’t force an addict into rehab, but there has to be accountability.”
June Steiner, clinical supervisor at White Deer Run in Lewisburg, has worked with several county drug courts and agrees they are helpful in providing resources to addicts.
“We do see these drug sweeps as the beginning for folks,” she said, adding that some clients at the drug treatment center have even expressed relief about being arrested because it gave them a chance to kick their habit.
Florey’s agency operates drug educational and prevention programs in the elementary schools of Sunbury, Coal Township and Shamokin with the aim of turning youngsters away from drugs and potential crime.
Once the addiction has overtaken an adult, it’s much more difficult, but not impossible, to overcome if there addict is willing, Florey said.
He’d like all drug offenders to undergo a mandatory analysis to assist them in recovery.
“Addiction is very difficult,” Florey said. “We’ve got a big problem and it’s a total community problem.”
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