ADDICTION A CRISIS HERE

To the Editor:

I am writing to respond to the three young women and one young man who felt
compelled to leave obscene messages on my answering machine late at night
recently.

Apparently they believe I should stop my efforts to urge Vineyarders to
take concrete steps to combat the drug and alcohol abuse crisis in our
community.

Contrary to one caller's assertion, I do indeed know about addiction.

I came so close to dying from drug and alcohol abuse 30 years ago that my
doctors estimated that I had six months to live. With help, I managed to
get sober and have worked the past 28 years to help other addicts get
sober, too. I also know quite a bit about denial - that mad fury and sad
defensiveness that is clearly what motivated these poor young people to
make their obscene phone calls.

Their anger is misplaced.

It would be better directed toward the substances that are killing people
in their community. Happily those four angry callers are a minority.

Every day I am on the Vineyard at least one person stops to thank me for my
modest efforts to get Vineyarders to address seriously the addiction crisis
in our community. I hope no more Vineyarders will have to die from drug or
alcohol abuse before our citizens and their leaders can address the problem.

Sheldon Baron
Chappaquiddick