“As a man of faith, we have to have our faith-based groups doing more,” said Darrell Weaver, director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control. “Faith-based groups need to be more involved. Law enforcement cannot do it by themselves.”

Weaver and Eddie Wyant, the district attorney for Delaware and Ottawa counties, addressed a crowd of about 50 people Wednesday evening during a community forum about last week’s drug-warrants sweep through northeastern Oklahoma and neighboring parts of Kansas and Arkansas. Agents served 70 warrants and arrested 43 people in one day.

Several others spoke about various drug-rehabilitation programs during the hour-and-a-half presentation.

“With God’s help and wisdom, we can overcome this problem,” said the Rev. David Knox, representing the local Ministerial Alliance and Christian HELP Center.

Knox said several faith-based programs exist in Delaware County, but he pledged to make them stronger.

Special Judge Alicia Littlefield praised Drug Court, which works with defendants who have substance-abuse problems and are charged with nonviolent felonies.

“Drug Court works,” said Littlefield, who called it “a passport to a new life.” Littlefield, who oversees the program in the area, bragged on its success rate.

“Seventy-five percent (of those in Drug Court) will never see a pair of handcuffs again,” she said.

Littlefield explained

Accountability is the chief reason the program works, Littlefield said.

Drug Court participants save taxpayer dollars, she said. For every $1 dollar spent on the program, more than $3 is saved in child care and other costs, Littlefield said.

OBNDD spokesman and education officer Mark Woodward said education about drugs begins at home.

Almost 70 percent of students have never heard from their parents that drugs are bad, he said, adding that in his experience, parents have a blasé attitude toward smoking marijuana.

But “I’ve seen more lives wrecked by marijuana than any other drug,” Woodward continued.

“I’m a huge fan of drug testing,” he said. “I just want to smack those parents who don’t want to go into a kid’s bedroom (and search for drugs), saying that it is an invasion of (the child’s) privacy.”

Marijuana puts teenagers on the wrong track and “gives kids an 'I don’t care’ attitude,” Woodward said.

Many teenagers think that if a drug is sold in stores or is prescribed by doctors, it’s not dangerous, he said. But one store alone sells 45 products that can make a person high, he said.