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Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesBill to Create New Anti-Drug Agency Moves Onto Full Senate

Bill to Create New Anti-Drug Agency Moves Onto Full Senate

Senators spent a few quick hours on St. Thomas moving forward all six bills on the Rules Committee agenda, including one to create a new agency tasked with cracking down on drug trafficking and distribution.
In essence, the agency would pick up where the now defunct Drug Enforcement Bureau left off, except that it would stand on its own instead of being housed under the Office of the Governor. Renamed the V.I. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drug Control, the agency would be under the control of a seven-member board composed of four volunteer citizens, along with top brass in the Police and Justice departments, who have consistently spoken out against the bill since it debuted a few months ago.
Among other things, concerns aired at previous meetings by Police Commissioner Novelle Francis Jr. and Attorney General Vincent Frazer include the difficulty of creating a new department that will be hampered by a lack of funds and possibly staffing the new bureau with agents that have been embroiled in controversy in the past.
Frazer has said the U.S. Department of Justice had threatened to file a consent decree over corruption problems at the old drug bureau, and if it were reactivated and kept the same personnel as the old agency, federal funding for territorial police efforts would stop.
For many years, the bureau was semi-independent, operating out of the Office of the Governor. But the small agency had continually been plagued by corruption and ineffectiveness. In 1999, then Gov. Charles Turnbull submitted legislation to disband it, but the Legislature took no action. Three years later, in 2002, three of its agents—more than a quarter of its staff—were indicted, along with a police officer and a corrections officer, for racketeering, extortion, and possession of drugs with intent to distribute.
In 2007 Gov. John deJongh Jr. submitted legislation to disband it as well. With no action taken, deJongh decided to effectively disband it unilaterally, by reassigning 10 of its 11 personnel to other, better-paying posts and not submitting a budget for the bureau.
Francis has since been successful in obtaining a $100,000 grant from the Law Enforcement Planning Commission to train the agents within VIPD.
But senators said Thursday they believe an independent entity is the better way to go, since it would allow the police to focus on crime and leave the drugs — which they said is a just as much of a problem — up to a dedicated team of professionals.
Voting to forward the bill onto the full legislative body for a final vote were Sens. Carlton "Ital" Dowe, Neville James, Sammuel Sanes, Patrick Simeon Sprauve, Michael Thurland and Celestino A. White Sr.
Sen. Usie R. Richards was absent.
Senators also moved forward:
-a bill that initially increased the number of members on the Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) to seven, but was amended Thursday to keep the current five, and puts in place harsher penalties for employers who violate the PERB’s orders;
-a resolution requesting that the Health Department study the feasibility and cost of operating a mobile dental clinic;
-a bill setting limits on the amount of sugar and fat in snacks and drinks sold in local schools;
-a bill enacting the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act, which Thurland explained Thursday clarifies the relationship between debtors and creditors and prevents a debtor from changing his or her financial status simply to avoid payment;
-a bill correcting the zoning designation granted in a previously passed bill to land in Cruz Bay, St. John; and
-a bill urging the Coastal Zone Management Commission to designate Lindbergh Bay a marine sanctuary or area of particular concern.

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