Drug arrests, and crime in general, have filled the headlines the last few weeks. But the IU Police Department says there is no need for concern.\n“It comes in cycles,” Detective Dave Hannum, head of the narcotics department, said of the recent rash of drug arrests. “Sometimes there’ll be a lot of marijuana, and sometimes there’ll be cocaine. I just happened to get some information lately about cocaine.”\nStatistics show drug arrests on campus are not particularly high this year. Since the start of 2007, five cases have been filed by IUPD in relation to cocaine. That’s one more than last year’s statistics of the same time period.\nBut the number of people seeking alcohol and drug rehab on campus has risen.\n“This has been a busy year,” said Chris Engle, a licensed clinical social worker at the IU Health Center.\nEngle leads a weekly group on Fridays called Staying Out of Trouble. The group focuses on helping others make good decisions on their own, rather than forcing behavioral changes through guilt, Engle said.\nDespite the rise in attendance in Engle’s class, he said he is not sure it is in tandem with more drug use among IU students in particular. Rather, he pointed toward national data that shows a general trend of increasing drug use among college students.\nThe National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York verifies Engle’s assumptions. A recent study, which collected data from college campuses from 1993 to 2005, found that the illegal use of prescription drugs is rising at a fast pace, with stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall up 93 percent and opioids such as Vicodin and OxyContin up 343 percent.\nThis trend is applicable to IU. Hannum said March 22 that “prescription drugs like Oxycontin are common on campus.”\nThe center also said cocaine and heroin use nationwide is on the rise, up 52 percent since 1993. Marijuana use has doubled in this time, attributed to 310,000 students in 2005.\nThe Greater Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse said those aged 18 to 25 are currently using cocaine more than any other age group.\nHowever, Hannum said he more often sees cocaine use off University grounds.\n“It’s not a student thing so much,” Hannum said. “Obviously it is to some degree, because (the recent arrests were) student-related, but it’s not that prevalent.”
Making cocaine busts\nHannum, who used to work undercover, said he tends to use undercover police officers for most of his work, rather than confidential sources.\n“Undercover always works better, mainly because it’s a more solid case,” Hannum said. “When you use a confidential source, nine times out of 10 they have a checkered past.”\nThe objective with undercover officers is often to develop a rapport with the dealer and find out more information.\n“With some people, my information may say that they have a lot of drugs,” Hannum said. “My person who buys may come out and say they have a lot of other stuff.” \nAt that point, Hannum finds it more effective to make a buy and then obtain a search warrant to confiscate all the drugs the dealer has.\n“Then, we’re pretty much done with that case,” Hannum said. “It’s better to do that then just get a warrant and arrest them.”
Clusters of arrests\nDespite drugs, peeping and other crimes in recent headlines, IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger said there is little need for more concern. In comparing the crime statistics since the first of the year with the first three months of 2006, no category of crime has significantly risen. In fact, some have dropped in occurrence.\n“What has happened recently is that the incidents that we have had have been of the type that develop interest,” Minger said. “Normally with peeping cases you wouldn’t even notice them. They don’t get near the attention as someone with a video camera and child porn.” \nThe same goes for a University Information Technology Services employee paying off his cocaine debt by stealing computers.\n“Here in the last few weeks it seems that there have been a lot of incidents that attract attention,” Minger said. “They have come all at once, instead of spreading out.”
