Newspapers / The Chowan Herald (Edenton, … / April 30, 1970, edition 1 / Page 16
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PAGE TWO-B Attorney General Robert Morgan Speaks To Jaycees On Couttaaed Iron Page 1 were made, certainly foul play was apparent The circumstances by which these cases.came to the at tention of authorities were different but the final con clusion in each case was the same: extensive examinations showed that cause of death was overdoses of hard nar cotics and even the most cursory examination showed the tell-tale needle marks. Try to convince the rela tives of these young men that there is no problem of drug abuse in this state. Try con vincing the parents of three Raleigh teenagers —ls years old, I believe—who are now in critical condition from taking overdoses of drugs here in this city. Try con Mr. Farmer SEE US FOR YOUR SEED PEANUT SHELLING We Are Now Open For Business - Telephone 482-2423 WE HAVE Farmers Stock and Certified Peanuts For Sale Chowan Storage Company W. Carteret St. Edenton, N. C. All Seed Receives Our Personal Attention ..... A Trial WiU Convince You! RE - ELECT Dr. A. F. Downum -TO Eden ton-Chowan Board of Education M'- ' • A. s ?' * W : }% jums/ ipM ' Experienced. Dedicated. He fought for merger of our two school administrative districts, and we won. He fought for right to vote for school board members and we won (previously part were self appointive). He fought, and is still righting for improved teaching methods and facilities for all our children, and we are still winning. vincing them and hundreds of other parents who have faced similar tragedies in 'North Carolina, that law enforce ment officials, doctors, edu cators and mental health of ficials should not be con cerned about the problem. I don’t need to tell you that the crime rate is in creasing in our state and na tion. We all know that. But, seme have implied that in this time of increasing crime, law enforcement authorities should not be concerned about the drug traffic but should attack other forms of crime. 1 ask the question, “How do such persons separate in their own minds—and to their own satisfaction increasing drug use from generally in creasing crime rate especi- THE CHOWAN HKBALD, EDENTON, NOBTH CABOUNA, THURSDAY, APRIL M, M7*. ally violent crimes? Someone suggested that this could be done, so I got on the phone and called several of our experienced SBI agents throughout the state and ask ed them if they could sec any connection between the two. I remind you now that l am talking to men who work daily in law enforce ment, who work almost ex clusively with serious crimes and most often crimes of vio lence. These men are not simply theorists, but practi cal, experienced and skilled men in latv enforcement. They answered without hesitation that there is a con nection between the alarming increase in crime and drug abuse and one after another they drew out illustrations to support their conclusions. Let me share a few of them with you, if 1 may. Our larger cities, centers of the hard narcotic traffic, have been plagued with rob beries in recent months and as you have heard or read the news, several innocent storekeepers and service sta tion operators have sense lessly been gunned down even though they offered no re sistance. In Charlotte, an elderly storekeeper and his wife were murdered in a robbery and the man charged with their deaths is an addict. Arrests have been made in a series of robberies in that city— those charged were addicts. In testifying before a Congressional committee, Po lice Chief Jerry Wilson of Washington, D. C., stated, “The narcotics problem is adding considerably to the problem of crime. We find this problem even among juvenile holdup men. It is not at all unusual to arrest a 16 or 17 year old in a holdup and find that they are narcotics users.’” It is easy for those of us from smaller communities to say, “Well, that is Charlotte or Washington, D. €., and we expect such things to occur in our larger cities but it won’t happen in my little town.” This simply isn’t true. When an addict has to turn repeatedly to criminal acts to secure funds to pur chase narcotics, often he must go to other communities in order to avoid recognition. He may live in an urban com munity, but prey by day or night on a small rural village or country store or filling station. Many areas of the state who would not admit to hav ing a drug problem arc hav ing problems with breaking and entering and burglaries. There is certainly a strong liketihood that they dj in fact have a drug problem. Let me illustrate this by 1 citing a case which also oc curred in North Carolina. A notorious Eastern North Ca rolina racketeer would fre quent dives and hangouts in larger cities of the North in , order to learn the members of the drug community. Then he would gather up several ! carloads of addicts, supply them with forged checks made ' on North Carolina companies, ■ transport them to North Ca- , rolina, dump them in a shop ping center and flood the merchants with forgeries. In a few hours he would gather them back up, return north to Richmond, Baltimore and other cities, give them a per centage of the "take" to sup ply their habit and pocket all the rest. This Eastern North Carolina community of some 20,000 probably would not admit to having a drug problem. Drug addiction is an expen sive habit. It can rim from S2O to SIOO a day, and the victim, because of his depend ence on the habit, is going to obtain the money somewhere to support it If there were no other evidence, common sense would tell us that there are few legal ways that a person—especially an unedu cated person can support that kind of habit The per son turns to crime—to shop lifting, to armed robbery and other forms of thievery in order to support his habit from day to day. Businessmen will tell you the tremendous losses which they are incurring from shop lifting. One major chain es timates that it loses 10 per cent annually from shoplift ing, and this loss, of course, must be recovered from the straight consumer. Goods stolen must be dis posed cf—converted to money for sidewalk or backroom purchases of drugs —so a chain of unlawful acts is set off by the addiction prob lem. The addict steals the goods; he sells them to a middle man who in turn must find the ultimate mar ket for them. So one crim inal act breeds another and after a while it becomes im possible to tell just how far the influence of illegal drug use does extend. , We know also that one major way to support a habit is to get others addicted—in other words, to create a drug market in which to operate and make enough profits tc 1 support a personal habit. And there is violence within the illegal drug community it self. I could tell you of a recent | execution in the style of Chicago gangland murders which occurred right here in North Carolina. The plot is simple. Two brothers, both unemployed, maintained an expensive apartment and a high scale of living. They had SSO a day habits them selves and they had a cor ner on the illegal drug mar ket in their town. Compet ing pushers were squeezing ' @1 SPECIAL ! PRE-SEASON i _ OFFER FREE ummuTiw ' MoMAP-123W> Frigteire PRESTIGE «r CMdttiMwr is | Pw-Drsp Quiet HvidMne. in so tho brothers simply waited in an alley and gun ned down their competition in the dtug traffic. There is money to be made in drugs and you may be as sured that as long as there is, the criminal community is going to vie for control of the market Its members arc going to make sure that new people, young people, are in troduced to drugs, that they are addicted to drugs, and that drugs arc available to support their habits. Recently agents of the State Bureau of Investiga tion, working undercover, made contacts in the drug community to purchase a large quantity of stimulents. The original purchase price was tq be more than SIO,OOO but our agents could not ob tain that kind of money to show even though arrests would be made on the spot and the money recovered im mediately. We did manage to obtain a few thousand dol lars and the buy was ar ranged. Three armed men came to make the sale. They had in their possession nearly 50,000 capsules worth a small for tune in the retail drug traffic. All three of the men were arrests in spite of the fact that one stood guard outside the room where agents and pusher dealt, ready to shoot anyone who tried to frustrate the sale. The drug business is lucra tive enough that here in our own state laboratories have been set up to produce noth ing but illegal drugs. Local officers and agents from the State Bureau of Investigation recently closed down such a laboratory in Piedmont North Carolina which was manufac turing in bulk an LSD-type drug. None of these cap sules were destined for legi timate medical use; in fact, there is no present medical use for it. In addition, chemicals were seized that would permit the manufac ture of a variety of other il legal drugs. The man was not in the business for kicks —this was no fad for him. It was a business proposition and he was making money. Needless to say, drugs were serious business also for the young men who exe cuted a 19-year-old acquaint ance they thought was ready to inform on them. 1 think , that probably most of our , people are concerned most THE PEOPLES’ CHOICE VOTE TO ELECT TROY JEd TOPPIN £jjL SHERIFF -IN THE- 1j w Years I ■" Experience 13 as Deputy and 1 as ABC Officer Sheriff Chowan County Democratic Primary MAY 2, 1970 EXPERIENCED - RELIABLE - DEPENDABLE - DEDICATED WORLD WAR H VETERAN Your Vote And Support Greatly Appreciated ’ Y CM Political AtvwtWag Sj Prha* « Trey iWn - 3 Dangerous Drug Problem In State about the way drugs have touched our young people. In a very real way they have become the victims of this age of drug abuse. They are by nature experimenters and drugs for centuries have pre sented a mystery to men. Those of you who are par ents know how difficult it is to impress a youngster with danger, whether it be with the danger presented by fird and high places, and later last cars'and alcohol. Again it is the nature of young people to a certain extent to defy danger sometimes until taught by experience. You know that lessons learned by experience come hard. Thank goodness, there is another way to learn—the way we learn most things— by the experience of others. We want to teach our young people the danger of drugs, we want to spare them the pain and the heartache that accompanies drug use and Ejj|i' 25 "YARDENINO" POWER TOOLS TO MEET ANY NEED Byrum Hardware Co., Inc. 314 S. Broad St Edenton, N. C. drug addiction. Again speaking for law en forcement personnel through out this state, I know that cur officers do not want to sec the lives of our young people marred or teenagers persecuted for engaging in drug experimentation. It is for this reason that the State Bureau of Investi gation and law enforcement agencies have concentrated VOTE FOR J. Wallace Goodwin, Jr. . ; l County Commissioner First Township SATURDAY, MAY 2nd Your Vote and Support Will Be Appreciated! their efforts on stopping those dealing in drugs, those push ing drugs and preying on the nature and weaknesses of j their fellow North Caro linians. Some persons have asked he w we can make such a statement when arrests arc made for possession and sale of comparatively small quan tities of drugs valued at only ’* Continued on Page 5
The Chowan Herald (Edenton, N.C.)
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April 30, 1970, edition 1
16
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