Drug arrest rate up nine percent over 1 974
1 i , , , . t
Drug dealers are burning many of their clients in a
phony amphetamine swindle, Lincoln Police Captain
Paul Jacob sen said Monday.
"There's a lot of ripoff going on right now with
people buying speed," he said.
Jacobsen said dealers are selling tablets containing
caffeine, claiming the pills are speed.
"You get some high school kid who doesn't drink
much coffee," he explained, "and after he tosses
down four of those pills, he's had the equivalent of
eight cups of coffee. That's going to affect him, and
he'll think that's the speed working."
Jacobsen, in charge of the Lincoln Police
Department's drug enforcement efforts, also said
felony arrests in drug cases have rissn in the past year,
and now top misdeamnor arrests.
Arrests up
"That's because more deliveries are being made
into this area, and we're getting our share of them,"
he said.
Jacobsen credited part of the increased arrest rate
to the city's patrol officers, saying, "More officers are
cognizant of drug-related signs now. They know a
drug scene when they come across one."
LPD recently sent 17 patrol officers to a drug
orientation course in Omaha, Jacobsen said, "not to
make them narcotics officers, but to familiarize them
with drug procedures."
Comparison of yearly arrest statistics show a nine
per cent rise in drug arrests in the last year, but
Jacobsen said one positive indicator in the statistics
was a nine per cent decrease among young people in
the 16 to 17-year-old range.
Jacobsen said most of the increases in drug arrest
rates took place in the 25 and older age span, adding,
"You know, we went around with that generation
over this once before and we hit them pretty good,
but they didn't learn anything!"
Team adequate
Lincoln police recognize drug problem areas in
local sales of hashish, marijuana and amphetamines,
Jacobsen said, adding that his drug enforcement team
of five is adequate to fit the city's drug control needs.
Reacting to reports that local drug dealers indicate
they do not feat LPD interference with their
operations, Jacobsen said, "That's all right, in
Nebraska it is the state undercover officers who have
the money to deal in the drug market."
The State Patrol seldom makes an immediate
in-view arrest, he said.
"But I think we've sent as many to the
penitentiary as they have," he added.
The increase in felony drug arrests has a variety of
underlying causes, Deputy County Attorney Robert
Gibson said Monday.
Substantial rise
Each year since 1969 the rate has risen by more
than 100 per . cent he explained, but in the last year it
has tapered off.
"It's still a substantial rise, and this year we will
have more felony arrests than last year, but I think
we've reached a peak in percentages," Gibson said.
Gibson's office is attempting to set up cases with
an emphasis on the major dealers, he explained.
Gibson defined a major dealer as one who imports
large quatities of drugs for wholesale distribution.
Gibson said amphetamines produced in clandestine
California laboratories being brought into Nebraska in
great numbers are causing the biggest problems in
enforcement. In addition, he said, the recent influx of
counterfeit speed, made of chalk, starch, or caffeine,
leads to violence in the community between dealers
and purchasers.
"After a burn in something like this," Gibson said,
"that's when we see the guns out, and it can lead
to a pretty dangerous scene."
Drugstore burglaries
Gibson said there have been a number of drugstore
burglaries in the Lincoln area by persons looking for
drugs.
"The persons who do that are really heavily
involved in personal use of amphetamines,
barbiturates, morphine or codein, any of the opium
derivatives," he said. "They are almost always people
with serious drug abuse involvement."
Drugstore burglars generally exhibit a great deal of
sophistication about what they take, Gibson said,
adding that they usually bypass most of the drugs in
the store and head straight for the drugs they
specifically want.
Gibson said that most amphetamines being sold in
Lincoln today are underground workshop-made. He
said his office rarely commissions quantitative
analysis on such items when they come into the
hands of the police, but he said analysis is made of
"the hard narcotics we get, so that we can check on
what is hitting the street."
Recent examinations of LSD has shown local
mixtures to be free of strychnine, Gibson reported. In
the Lincoln area, he added, LSD has become "a high
sciiool phenomenon. The university crowd isn't
interested in it anymore, but at the high school and
junior high level the kids want to see what happens."
' Prices soar
Gibson said that drug prices have soared in the few
years he has been working drug cases in Lincoln.
Danfiv p heard about a Jamacian marijuana
was reportedly selling for $2000 for ten pounds,
Gibson said. . ,
He said marijuana was sold in pounds instead of
kilos after the statute was changed declaring that
possession of more than a pound of marijuana,
constituted a felony.
"A lot of people will take a chance on a pound or
less," Gibson said, "but in the old days, when the
limit was half a pound, people would either try to
stay below that or go big for the kilo (2.2 pounds)."
Gibson said he doubted criminal enforcement was
the means to effectively control drug use. He
suggested education should play an equally important
role in stopping drug abuse, adding that the efforts of
law enforcement agencies should be concentrated on
large scale dealing operations, narcotics and the sale
of barbituates.
r , , Mindset
Continued from p. 9
services on a confidential level for students with
emotional and drug related problems.
' Crisis prevention
Outreach provides help in crisis intervention
situations and is beginning a greater effort in its crisis
prevention programs, according to Outreach director
Dr. Carmen Grant.
"If we can reach people who are in stress,"
explained Grant, "and help them with their
problem-solving in a way that has a lasting effect,
perhaps we can help them avoid further
complications."
Three student volunteers attend the Outreach
program services, according to Dr. Grant. Each
student has had some experience with drugs or with
close friends who took drugs, she said.
"The students who run the center are pretty much
on their own," she remarked.
In her work at the center, Grant said she discovers
some cases where students still have trouble with
drugs, but those are most often students who have
problems with many aspects of their lives.
Self-responsibility
Grant said one obvious problem with recent drug
mishaps was the result of students not checking out
the quality of the drugs before using them.
Most drug users today, she said, are better
educated in the procedures and rarely have problems.
People who are not really coping are the ones who are
using drugs unwisely she said.
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daily nebraskan
Wednesday, april 30, 1975
