HIGH POINT, N.C. - The West End neighborhood here still shows the scars of blight. Menacing "POSTED, No Trespassing" signs are tacked on front doors and porches. The windows of the local convenience store are barred and the cashier works behind a plastic partition. Some houses are abandoned and boarded up; others have "rooms for rent" signs out front.

But things have gotten better in this poverty-stricken end of town, some residents say, since High Point police launched a program nearly four years ago that gave drug dealers a second chance.

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