Drug Arrest Up
Drug arrests are up, but does that mean drug use is up? Not necessarily.
Unlike most crimes reported to the police, drug crimes typically don’t have a victim. Drug arrests are usually made one of two ways: an undercover investigation or through the actions of an alert patrol officer that is already interacting with the suspect for another reason, such as a traffic violation.
Some months ago, we teamed up with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office for a combined drug enforcement task force. But most of the increases in arrests are from the outstanding work done by patrol officers. The most common arrests appear to be Marijuana, Methamphetamine, and more recently, Spice.
By the way, a quick review of the national literature shows that drug use is up mostly because of an increase in pot smokers. Cocaine is dropping and Meth might be dropping. Locally, I’m pretty confident that Cocaine use is down, but I’m not so sure about Meth.