Pubdate: Tue, 26 Dec 2006
Source: Jamaica Gleaner, The (Jamaica)
Copyright: 2006 The Gleaner Company Limited
Contact: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/feedback.html
Website: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/493
Author: Jah Gary G. H. Wilson

COCAINE THREAT

The Editor, Sir:

There in the darkness of the cool Jamaica night,  veiled, are an old 
man and woman crouched over with a  lighter, a spoon, and the poison 
in the middle. I took  a second look, and it was my cousin whom I 
didn't  recognise. The other, was also a friend of mine.

 From what I have observed, Jamaica is equipped with  facilities 
which house addicts for a stint of anywhere  between six months up to 
a year. Though this process is  an integral key in the fight against 
dangerous drugs  such as crack cocaine, it is only one quarter of the answer.

The money may seem lucrative to the drug dons in this  trade, but 
make no bones about it, this drug epidemic  will hit home where it 
hurts both the user and the  non-user. Crack cocaine usage has far 
passed hardcore.  Usage now borders on ridiculous and suicidal.

Beware! Crack cocaine does not discriminate. I've been  a witness to 
the death of an engineer. I've been a  witness to the total 
humiliation and ruination of a  pharmacist and a would-be pilot.

The world of crack cocaine usage is not glamorous,  neither is it a 
pretty sight.

Each and every Jamaican, home and abroad, has to fight  against this 
dreadful epidemic.

Individuals known to flirt with this danger should be  given a 
minimum sentence of three years in order to  purge the poison from 
the blood stream, and a maximum  sentence of 10 years if this 
addictive habit is repeated.

I am, etc.,

Jah Gary G. H. Wilson

Bronx, New York

Via Go-Jamaica
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