Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jul 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: T. Casey

DRUG PROBLEM IS NOT CONFINED TO THE INNER CITY

The article"Born with a burden" rightfully notes that babies born to 
drug-addicted mothers are a regular presence at hospitals throughout 
the state, but is wrong to include the line "At one time, babies 
withdrawing from drugs were a rarity, except in the inner city."

The drug problem has never been confined to the inner cities. Yes, 
the problem had more visibility in those areas, but that does not 
mean that rural, poor white communities were immune from illicit drugs.

Unfortunately, while we were stigmatizing residents of the inner 
cities, our suburban youth were also using drugs. Yet we turned a 
blind eye, until we now have this heroin epidemic in rural America 
and in the suburbs.

Now that this epidemic is prevalent largely among whites, there is a 
push to destigmatize drug addiction and a call for less harsh 
sentencing for drug possession.

T. Casey, Boston
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom