Last year, the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics says that over 17,000 drug related arrests were made and that well over a billion dollars worth of drugs were confiscated in 2017.
“We’ve got a real problem right now in Mississippi because we are fighting the illegal narcotics on every front,” said John Dowdy director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. “We are doing everything that we can to expand the footprint of the bureau of narcotics, including partnerships with out police departments and our sheriff’s departments. DEA, homeland security investigations, FBI and utilizing and pooling those resources together makes for a better enforcement here in Mississippi.”
While Dowdy says they are still calculating the numbers he said that they estimate over 17,000 drug related arrests were made in Mississippi. The arrests were made by a combination of police departments, sheriff’s departments and the bureau of narcotics.
“That’s a lot of people getting arrested for drug related activity whether it be possession of marijuana, all of the way up to trafficking of cocaine or whatever,” Dowdy said. “I think that we have got to start re-thinking how we are doing things as far as do we have enough deterrent out there.”
He added that they want to become more involved in the communities to make young adults aware of the consequences of not only drug usage but of drug sales.
“So many times it’s glamorized,” Dowdy said. “People think it’s an easy way to make money. There’s a lot of money to be made in the sale of narcotics, but the consequences to that are potentially a ruined life.”
Dowdy added that they will be looking into the gang activity in Mississippi this year.
“For years and years many city leaders would never say that we have a gang problem in our town, but the fact of the matter is, just about every municipality in the state of Mississippi has some gang activity going on and we have got to get aggressive against that.”
He added that he believes cutting down on the gang activity would drastically decrease the drug activity in Mississippi.”
“If you look at the street value of the drugs that were taken off the streets in 2017, it’s difficult to ascertain an exact number, but I would dare say that the street value of the drugs that were seized in Mississippi last year would be in the billions with a B.
