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Bill Dailey, the chief of the drug unit with the Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, discussed several drug-related topics pertinent to northern Macomb County at the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition meeting on March 13.

“One of the things you can look at is the numbers and I ran the Macomb County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office numbers from Sept. 1, 2007, through (March 12),” he said. “You can get some comparison and some ideas about what is going on in this part of the county as opposed to what is going on in Warren and the southern part of the county.”

There are currently two organizations in northern Macomb County involved with drug enforcement including the County of Macomb Enforcement Team (COMET) and the Macomb County Sheriff Department’s Special Enforcement Team (SET).

“The SET Team has 61 cases authorized, they are not all this part of county but I would say a third of those 61 stem from the northern part of the county,” Dailey said.

For that whole time period the Sheriff’s Department has had about 284 drug cases for the entire county.

Dailey said that about one-third or half of the cases are from the southern part of the county.

“The way I look at it is, maybe you have a problem that is emerging or that is possibly growing but you don’t have a problem that is nearly as established as in the southern part of the county.”

Dailey also discussed in length the legal ramifications of selling or buying the drug known as “ecstasy” in Macomb County.

“Ecstasy” deliveries are class-B offenses, which according to Dailey, means they are more strictly penalized than many other street drugs.

“You deliver one pill of Œecstasy’ to another person you are on the B-grid,” he said. “People go to prison and have been going to prison for the last year in the county regularly for selling a pill, two pills or 10 pills of Œecstasy.’”

Dailey said that these strict penalties might be working, though.

“I honestly think that I am seeing less Œecstasy’ deliveries at the street level then I was when I first came to your group,” said Dailey, who first visited with the coalition last year. “I think that part of the reason is, maybe word is getting out amongst the people who sell the 10, 20, 30, 50 pills of Œecstasy.’ And a lot of those people are our young people.”

Dailey said that people who sell “ecstasy” are realizing that serious prison time could be in store for them.

“Parents are coming in when their kids sold five or 10 pills of Œecstasy’ and they are going ŒOh my God, they are going to prison,’ and they are,” said Dailey. “I think maybe the word is getting out that it is not worth it to sell Œecstasy.’”

Dailey said all a person needs to have is one other misdemeanor on their record when getting convicted for selling “ecstasy” and that person will go to prison in Michigan.

“ŒEcstasy’ is targeted at one group of people,” he said. “It’s targeted at young people. It’s marketed for kids.”

Dailey also discussed the penalties for selling other street drugs like marijuana and cocaine as well as the penalties for selling prescription drugs.

The next Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition meeting will be held on April 10 at 42-Division 1 District Court in Romeo, 14713 33 Mile Road in Romeo.

For more information on the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition, call Jamie Rossmann at 752-9696 Ext. 212.