Pubdate: Wed, 30 Mar 2016
Source: Alaska Dispatch News (AK)
Copyright: 2016 Alaska Dispatch Publishing
Contact:  http://www.adn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/18
Note: Anchorage Daily News until July '14
Author: Paul Richards

PEOPLE MAKING BAD CHOICES IS NOTHING NEW

Yet another article concerning heroin addiction has appeared in this 
paper. It is as if writing about the problem will change something. It won't.

I lived in Fairbanks for 20 winters and observed that every spring as 
breakup approached, people would continue to drive down Small Tracks 
Road, past the "thin ice" signs, around the recently installed 
barricades, and across the Chena River ice road until someone, 
usually a 20-something male in a pickup, dropped through the ice 
thereby necessitating a tow and an expensive repair. It happens 
during the season that the sandhill cranes return to Creamer's Field. 
Both events are foreseeable but a Chena River dunking is preventable.

So it is with heroin addiction. That first injection is like crossing 
rotten ice on a warm spring day. Everyone who is not mentally 
impaired knows through observation that heroin is addictive and its 
use will likely lead to a life of misery and despair. Unfortunately, 
people have been making bad choices since early man cooked the first 
sandhill crane on an open fire and it is inevitable that they will 
continue to do so until cranes no longer return to Creamer's Field. 
Put up "thin ice" signs and barricades if it makes you feel better, 
but be certain that some people will always choose to drive around them.

- - Paul Richards

Talkeetna
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom