PROSECUTOR FEARS ‘SPEED’ IN THE 1990s, AGAINST LEGALIZATION

—- MOSCOW Drugs should never be legalized, society must discourage alcohol and tobacco use and methamphetamine promises to become the narcotic of the 1990s, Idaho’s federal prosecutor said Thursday evening.

Maurice Ellsworth, U.S. Attorney for the Federal Department of Justice in the District of Idaho, spoke to about 30 people from the University of Idaho College of Law. He defended President Bush’s war on drugs and said, contrary to popular myth, Idaho does not have a relatively drug-free environment.

“Drugs are a scourge everywhere, including Idaho,” Ellsworth said. He called the state a “microcosm” of the rest of the nation and pointed to the recent arrest of alleged Los Angeles gang members in Pocatello as evidence of the growing problem.

While he declined to comment in detail on the ongoing cases, Ellsworth said his office alleged the gang members were trafficking illegal drugs.

Ellsworth leads the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force for Idaho and says his office continues to work with local, state and national law enforcement agencies to not only curb, but stop drug trafficking in the state.

He said his goal is to “successfully eliminate illegal drugs from our society.”

Ellsworth said the federal government is providing additional resources for drug law enforcement in Idaho because of minimum sentencing guidelines and other levers, such as his office’s ability to seize property and assets related to drug trafficking. He said more than $2 million in assets have been seized in drug cases in Idaho so far.

“To me, it seems like poetic justice that we can take a drug dealer’s assets and use them (the money from such seizures) to arrest other drug dealers,” Ellsworth said.

During a question-and-answer session after his speech, Ellsworth was asked by a television news reporter about the disparity in the law between drugs like marijuana and cocaine, and alcohol and tobacco. Ellsworth said he understands that alcohol abuse may be an even bigger problem than drug abuse. But he said society cannot afford to relax drug laws simply to bring them more in line with alcohol laws.