Pubdate: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2002 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: http://www.sunspot.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37 Author: Jon Swift HOW WILL THE MAYOR RID CITY OF DRUGS? After reading The Sun's article about Mayor Martin O'Malley's proposed advertising campaign to eliminate drug use in Baltimore within the year ("Mayor hails city's gains," Jan. 29), I strolled out of my favorite Mount Vernon cafe feeling good, knowing that the neighborhood crackheads will soon be inspired to drop their nasty habit. Back home in Fells Point, I greeted the panhandlers pleasantly, thrilled that the heroin addicts among them won't be using that drug much longer. As for the dealers on my street, I'm glad that even the most unskilled and poorly educated of them will soon be getting real jobs doing - well, I'm sure Mr. O'Malley will think of something. When an out-of-town friend called to ask how life in Baltimore is, I said: "Great! The city's closing library branches like mad, transit and schools are still grossly under-funded and health care for the poor remains nearly nonexistent, but at least the mayor's new ad blitz is going to get rid of the drug problem." Then I walked up to my neighborhood bar, feeling a little sad that everyone who works there will soon be jobless - after all, alcohol is a drug, and if Mr. O'Malley really wants us to "get drugs out of our minds," well ... Of course, I'm still unclear on the magic formula Mr. O'Malley and his friends in the advertising industry have apparently found to wipe out an activity millions of human beings have practiced for millennia - namely, the use of mind-altering chemicals as an attempted escape from boredom or intolerable living conditions. But I can't wait to find out. Jon Swift, Baltimore - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager