Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2001
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2001 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Bob Mueller
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1487/a07.html

THE REAL SOURCE

Downers Grove -- Regarding your Aug. 13 story on suburban teenagers and 
heroin ("Teens trek to city for heroin," Page 1), there are plenty of drugs 
here in DuPage County so it does a disservice to everyone when you write 
stories suggesting that the city of Chicago is the source.

Out here some of the pot dealers also sell heroin, usually at the same 
price as the city dealers.

To that extent, pot is a crossover drug, yet the effects of the two 
substances are quite different.

As long as papers like the Tribune make it a city problem, these people 
have an excuse.

That is a major disservice to the residents of this county and especially a 
disservice to the kids who are growing up here.

The dealers here are white as well as black and Hispanic, with the usual 
disproportionate share of minorities being blamed and sometimes prosecuted.

So much for our "war on drugs." Thank you for again telling us Chicago is 
the problem. We don't want to look in the mirror any more than we have to.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D