America's drug war is an abysmal failure. Like all foreign entanglements, it finds us arrogantly pretending to fix other countries while stumbling to manage our own. Success will not be found in Mexican border towns, Colombian jungles, or Afghan poppy fields. We will win or lose right here at home. A search for solutions begins with a commitment to liberty versus freedom. Liberty is freedom seasoned with accountability. One does not work without the other - which is precisely why drug legalization fails. [continues 337 words]
As Asheville's drug culture parties on, south of the border the clock is ticking in a horrifically violent power struggle between Mexico's government and narco-terrorists funded by America's revelry. The death toll from this war is higher than our own in Iraq. Every time a free spirit or suited businessman takes a "time out" with meth, crack or coke, he or she is supporting the cultural destruction of Mexico and other countries vulnerable to the temptations of supplying America's cravings. We can make a difference in Asheville by stepping over the illusions of innocent drug use and being realistic about the harms. In resisting personal temptations and supporting our police in confronting consumers and sellers in our open air drug markets, we can impair the recruitment of new dealers, users and enablers who keep the cycle of destruction alive. [continues 71 words]
North Carolina legislators have created a perfect storm of dysfunction with persisting lip service to our state's hard drug problems. By gutting the mental health system, underfunding a dysfunctional judicial system and chasing social symptoms versus core harms, they have secured an embedded drug culture that touches us all. A drug kingpin with the power to design a system of corruption could do no better. Across our porous borders, Mexican drug cartels are killing the heart of their culture and have begun to bribe and intimidate their way into ours. The horrific number of drug murders in that country and the brutal killing of a UNC Chapel Hill student originate from the same drug-thug cultural model funded by addicts, lawlessness and indifference. Open-air drug markets are recruiting stations for new dealers, users and supporters and should not be tolerated in Asheville or anywhere else. Few meetings of our City Council do not provide opportunity to vote against government-funded butterfly exhibits, regulation of pumpkin sales and other such nonsense taking time and money away from the real fight -- protecting our children, neighborhoods and culture from social poison that goes for the heart of everything. Carl Mumpower, Asheville City Council [end]
A convergence of social ills tears at our society's fabric It took the twin towers of New York to expose the insidious realities of Islamic fascism. It was the fragile dikes defeated by Hurricane Katrina that betrayed the dysfunction of three tiers of government, the Corps of Engineers and FEMA. A falling bridge in Minnesota was the tragic wake-up call to a long-neglected national infrastructure. In each of these examples we find evidence of patterned malaise, distraction and self-interest by our leaders. In each we find the opportunity to point a finger or look deeper into the mirror. [continues 608 words]
The Mountain Xpress deserves a note of credit for highlighting my glaringly obvious, self-serving efforts to grandstand around the drug issue. It takes special talent to alienate the drug community and the police at the same time, and such shenanigans merit editorial attention. Heck, if you throw in the any-way-you-like-it crowd, those with a knee-jerk resistance to conservative-Christian Republicans, and the slumbering majority who resent having their comfortable complacency on our drug problem interrupted, I've managed to alienate about 90 percent of the people of Asheville. That's certainly a savvy way to secure my personal safety and political future. Keep your keyboard warmed up though, because I am not done. I hope to finish off the remaining 10 percent in the near future. [continues 74 words]
The pending loss of Asheville's McCormick Heights neighborhood highlights an imploding complacency with an unrestrained open-air hard drug market in our city. The residents of this much-needed affordable housing resource are understandably resistant to a move from the frying pan to the fire when encouraged toward Pisgah View or a similar public housing neighborhood. Their hesitancy is not founded in the availability of affordable options, but rather in a clear understanding of the perils attached to communities where drug dealers, users and their protectors thrive. If you live in an upscale neighborhood or limit your Asheville forays to an occasional movie, restaurant or shopping venue, it is easy to minimize the personal risks of Asheville's drug problems. Like cancer, hard drugs have a way of eating a community from within, and ignoring the symptoms and passage of time similarly limit the options for a cure. [continues 674 words]
First, let me thank you for your opinion piece on drugs and children . [Commentary, "Failed Drug War Won't Protect Our Children," (http://www.mountainx.com/opinion/2005/0406hanrahan.php) by Clare Hanrahan, April 6]. Although we share dramatically differing perspectives, I appreciate anyone who attempts to shine some light on our serious drug issues in Asheville. As a point of secondary interest, your assertion that I in any way solicited crack cocaine is untrue and represents a repeat of an urban myth largely perpetuated by my fans at the Mountain Xpress. While we are on that subject of urban myths and drugs, may I share a few more? [continues 543 words]
When I first made the decision to turn toward our city's hard-drug problem, I anticipated shin-busting hurdles, personal attacks, misinterpretations and manipulations of my motives, philosophical differences with some colleagues on City Council. I even expected a few myopic mud pies from Mr. Molton [Xpress cartoonist], and I had no doubts that the hard-drug dealers and users would be less than tickled with my labors. I did not, however, expect that my stumbling efforts would stimulate wrath from the good state of Texas. [continues 558 words]
Dear Retired Officer Howard J. Wooldridge: Thank you for your efforts to reach out to help Asheville from your Dallas office of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition [Letters, June 16]. Unfortunately the street-level hard-drug interdiction plan you observe as doomed to failure is not remotely [a] reflection of the effort we are trying to implement in Asheville. We've done our homework and followed models that do work across the country. You had the option of also doing your homework or offering us clever sound bites as a substitute for substance. You chose the latter, but should you make a stronger effort to do your homework about our real plan, I, for one, would be grateful for your help. Carl Mumpower Vice-Mayor city of Asheville [end]
In his detailed article titled "It's War!" in the May 12 issue of Mountain Xpress, Brian Sarzynski offered an even-handed view of fluctuating tensions within Asheville's City Council. In truth, however, the deeper story lays not in temporary conflicts between Council members or most certainly my imagined interest in the mayor's job. The story most worthy of a bright light is the near-term opportunity to embrace a hard-drug-interdiction program that targets distributors, dealers and users wherever they go in our good city. [continues 217 words]
