Pubdate: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 Source: Seattle Times (WA) Copyright: 2005 The Seattle Times Company Contact: http://www.seattletimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409 Author: Bernice Malone Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1901/a05.html UNCONTROLLED SUBSTANCE Complacency Is So Rampant, You Can't Just Say Go Editor, The Times: After having lived across the street from a drug house for 15 years and having worked as an RN in both a detox center and a psychiatric unit, I find former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper's drug theories dangerous and deplorable ["Legalize drugs -- all of them," Times guest commentary, Dec. 4]. If drug users would be responsible in any way for the problems they cause, to themselves and to anyone unlucky enough to be part of their lives, Stamper's theory might make some sense. Their drug use does not have a positive effect on anyone. I don't remember taking the history of a single drug user that didn't indicate it all started with marijuana use. Drug use may be illegal but if you lived with a drug house in your neighborhood, you would doubt the police were aware of this law. Our neighborhood put up with all that goes with drug houses -- dangerous traffic and noise at all hours, loose pit bulls, fights, garbage strewn all over, syringes and condoms in your yard, etc., etc. We had neighborhood meetings with our local police commander and anti-drug individuals. Until I used the word "sue" -- since we were not getting the protection our taxes were supposed to provide us -- we were treated with less respect than the drug users [receive]. The word "sue" caused a SWAT team raid and the end of the problems with the unsavory characters. From my observations, drug use is a choice, not an illness that taxpayers need to repeatedly have their money used for "cures" -- unless the drug user honestly wants to stop their drug use. Bernice Malone, Mukilteo - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake