Pubdate: Sun, 13 Sep 2015
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2015 PG Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/pm4R4dI4
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author: Richard Doyle

DRUGS ARE KILLING COMMUNITIES AND PEOPLE WE LOVE

I have written this letter a thousand times in my head. Always hoped 
I wouldn't have to send it. I write this from a war zone. As a war 
correspondent, you can report only what you see firsthand. The 
Post-Gazette won't report on this casualty ... After all, this is 
just one more death, a casualty of our war on drugs.

A young man whose family has been intertwined with ours for years 
died recently of an overdose - one more victim of the epidemic that 
is sweeping our country. There will be no quarter-column news story 
about his death. His passing will be remembered only in an obit.

Heroin is sweeping through our communities. It's a scourge upon the 
cities and suburbs and farmlands of America.

I've wondered for years: How does it get here and where does it come 
from? Amazingly enough, it's grown in Afghanistan, a country we have 
been at war in for 14 years. In the words of a presidential hopeful, 
we need a wall at the border. But his concern is keeping Mexicans 
out, while mine is stopping the poison being unleashed on our children.

You can never know what this time has been like for my family, his 
family, all our friends.

I hope this letter can serve as a wake-up call to our elected 
officials - that this letter makes people think and feel the 
suffering of the victims of this failed war, that somehow the 
judgment can end and we can all work to make this war a win for the victims.

To those who suffer and die without even so much as a quarter column 
and to the families who are suffering still, my heart goes out to 
you. RIP to our dear family friend; I pray he has found peace.

RICHARD DOYLE 					

South Park 					
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom