Fighting drugs with $93,000 sports car raises questions
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Posted 3:02PM on Wednesday, August 7, 2002
WOODBINE - The Camden County Sheriff's Department is convinced that showing off a $93,000 Viper sports car is one way of grabbing the attention of kids and preventing them from taking drugs. Other officials aren't so sure. <br>
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The county's new Drug Awareness and Resistance Education car is a 2001 Dodge Viper RT/10, which game reach 200 miles per hour. <br>
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Lieutenant Williams Terrell, a sheriff's department spokesman, said it's hard to impress kids and grab their attention because of television and video games. <br>
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Terrell said, ``Once we have their attention, then we can focus on getting them to listen and show them how to resist peer pressure to use drugs and alcohol.'' <br>
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Others, however, wonder if the car, which recently won a national contest in Las Vegas, Nevada, for its custom paint job, cost too much. <br>
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The sports car was purchased with forfeited drug money from seizures made by the sheriff's department. <br>
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DARE officer, Captain David Gregory, acknowledged that a few people have complained about the money spent on the car. <br>
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Gregory said, ``The sheriff's response has been you can't put a price on a child's life.'' <br>
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Terrell said Camden County's drug enforcement efforts along I-95, a drug pipeline between South Florida and the northeastern United States, have seized more than $14 million in cash over the past 15 years. Those funds have gone to purchase patrol cars, weapons and training and education programs.