editorial comment Protect your children by calling the cops. Nice parents!

After a 20-year-old Annapolis man shot his stepfather following a possible confrontation over drugs, city police are encouraging more parents to take a stand against narcotics in their homes.

But while police and community activists agree family intervention is vital in curbing the local drug trade, many say fear of similar violence muzzles parents.

Police are still investigating the Oct. 30 death of 66-year-old Joseph Theodore Brown Sr. of 1908 F Copeland St. He died en route to Anne Arundel Medical Center after suffering at least four gunshot wounds. Police said Timothy Marcus Medley, who lived with his stepfather, confessed, calling the shooting an accident.

Police said they later discovered a sizeable amount of marijuana in Mr. Medley's room.

He was charged with first-degree murder, use of a handgun in a felony and drug possession.

While a solid motive hasn't emerged, city police spokesman Hal Dalton said reports have surfaced that the pair may have argued over drugs.

Police say such confrontations are common, though usually not violent. Among recent examples:

ø On Aug. 4, a woman called police to her Croll Drive home where they found 14 grams of suspected cocaine and a shotgun in her 17-year-old daughter's room.

ø On Oct. 27, police arrested a 16-year-old Edelmar Drive youth after his mother smelled marijuana coming from his room and called authorities.

"A lot of times parents don't know where to turn, so they call police," said Sgt. Shawn Urbas, a county police spokesman.

Such parents are a boon to officers, who combat an increasingly youth-
driven drug market, Officer Dalton said. City police arrested 46 people under 18 on drug-related charges from January through August this year. There were just 12 such arrests for the same period last year.

County police arrested 422 youths on drug charges from January through October. Queen Anne's County police have made 45 juvenile drug arrests through the first week of November.

"They all have to live somewhere; presumably, most still at home with mom or dad," Officer Dalton said. "Parents could have a large role in combating the drug trade if they were more in tune with what their kids were doing and sought intervention."

Sgt. Urbas said a phone call from a parent could make a dent in local drug traffic as a whole.

"There's information that might be gleaned from that type of call ... that could lead to a larger arrest," he said.

But stepping up is easier said than done, said Larry Griffin, president of We Care and Friends, an antidrug group.

He said parents come to him several times a week to seek his help in getting drugs out from under their roof. More often than not, he said, they go home and let it continue, because they're too worried about fracturing family relationships.

"They say that they would love to turn them in," he said. "They're afraid the child will get into a (drug) program, come back and have an attitude."

Fear of violence also paralyzes parents, said Patricia Holliday, a member of the Annapolis Housing Authority Board of Commissioners and a community safety activist. She pointed to the 2002 deaths of a Baltimore family of seven after drug dealers burned their house for tipping off cops.

"It's a genuine fear through all of the communities," she said.

But ignoring the problem doesn't help, Officer Dalton said. Allowing drugs in the home can produce violence whether or not parents call the police, he said.

"Other people may get word there are drugs in the house and they break in," he said. "You open yourself up to all kinds of things."

Instead, he urged parents to make it clear drugs won't be tolerated, stick to their word and call police as soon as anything turns up.

Mr. Griffin suggested contacting expert mediators before approaching a potentially violent child.

"(Mr. Brown) should have called somebody," Mr. Griffin said. "This could happen again."

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dwalker@capitalgazette.com

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