Comment & Debate
Toni Meyer. “Making the case for opposing needle exchange”. New Jersey Family Policy Council. November 16, 2007: “Drug Dealers Blatantly Sell Near NEPs: Commonly, drug dealers operate unimpeded by police when they are in the area of an NEP. For example, in Vancouver Canada’s Downtown Eastside area “The dealers hang around with impunity on the corner of Hastings and Main and the police don’t touch them.”3 But, in Santa Cruz California, dealers conducting business along the San Lorenzo River levee grew too cocky for their own good. Courthouse personnel began to see the dealing from outside Department 7 — the county’s drug court — so officers coordinated a sting and arrested and arraigned seven men at the courthouse, about 200 feet from a spot on the levee where detectives say they were selling their wares. Santa Cruz police Lt. Steve Clark said drug dealing along the levee has been a problem for at least seven years…”. Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Carney said the dealers had gotten so comfortable they would set up shop in the early morning, packing a lunch “for a day of work” selling heroin, cocaine and other drugs. Rich Westphal of the county Narcotics Enforcement Team said unfortunately, those arrested are quickly replaced by other dealers who will just move down the river a short distance to meet the demand for illegal drugs. The drug traffickers work from Highway 1 to the ocean, he said, and officers keep chasing them.”