Pubdate: Tue, 31 Jan 2006
Source: Herald-Sun, The (Durham, NC)
Copyright: 2006 The Herald-Sun
Contact:  http://www.herald-sun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1428
Author: David Polewka

TAKE CONTROL OF DRUGS

The issues of drugs and gangs are very interesting to me. The last 
five years, I worked at a local detox unit, predominately serving 
crack addicts. I've been a volunteer at a local prison every week 
since 1995, and I've been in recovery myself for 20 years. In my 
experience, when a young person dares another to try drugs, there's 
usually a financial incentive involved. Making drugs legal again, to 
be sold at ABC stores to users 18 and up will remove much of that 
problem. Any person peddling drugs on the black market, by himself, 
is living very dangerously. So it's a logical development to seek 
safety in numbers by forming gangs. Again, bringing the drug 
marketplace back under state control will go a long way in solving 
the gang problem. Then, not having to fight a drug war any more, all 
the billions of dollars we would save could be spent on treatment 
programs, or returned to taxpayers.

DAVID POLEWKA

Chapel Hill
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman