BALTIMORE PRIORITY IS DRUG TREATMENT

Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Baltimore recently spoke at The Sun with
Richard C. Gross, editor of the Opinion Commentary page, about Baltimore's
needs and how the state and Congress might fill some of them.

You said the state isn't doing enough for Baltimore. What should it be doing?

One of the things the state has to do is give more money for drug treatment.

Baltimore is definitely a city that's on the move, and we are getting
stronger every day. But we can get stronger faster if the state gave more
with regard to drug treatment and helped us make sure that those drug
treatment dollars work for or are used to provide the most effective
treatment. I know that Mayor [Martin] O'Malley is committed to that.

Why is a drug treatment program for Baltimore more important than anything
else? Is that the cornerstone of rebuilding Baltimore?

It's one of the cornerstones. I don't see how I could say education is not
just as important, or more important. ...

I met a father the other day ... and one of the things that he said to me
is that he cleaned up his life. He was only about 38 years old. He spent
half of his adult life in jail because of drugs. Now he is out and is about
to get a job and he [has] two sons -- one was 12 and one was 15 -- [and]
he's now in their lives.

So there are two things there. One, we have somebody who is no longer
draining the system. We are spending $20,000 to $30,000 to imprison them
because of drugs now. So we are not spending that.

Two, he's improving the lives of two young children who, hopefully because
of his participation and him showing them what he did wrong, will stop
cycles of drug addiction in poverty.

Three, he's going to contribute to the tax base.

Four, he's not a crime waiting to happen. ...

I find myself going to the AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings and running
into hundreds of people who have turned their lives around, are very
productive and are celebrating their lives and now they are productive
parts of society. So I think drug treatment is very important. ...

We've got to deal with treatment so we can recapture lives so that those
lives can be productive and uplift our city instead of bringing it down.

What can Congress do for Baltimore?

What Congress can do is make sure that cities like Baltimore have the
necessary funds to accomplish the things that they need to accomplish. For
example, making sure that as far as housing is concerned that we have
sufficient funds to get ... first-time homebuyers [and] give them an
opportunity to own a house by providing money for subsidized housing and
building housing that middle-income people and lower-income people can
purchase.

[It] can help us ... with bringing down our crime numbers by doing things
[such as giving] $28.8 million so that we could put 200 more policemen on
the street. [It could] provide money for our PAL centers so that our
children have a place to play. And [it could provide] $2.5 million of that
for drug treatment, and that would treat about 1,000 people. ...

The federal government can also help us with education dollars because we
really need education dollars very badly.

What about Mayor O'Malley? What kind of report card do you give him?

The mayor is giving it the best he can. He has a tremendous job. It's a job
that is basically a thankless job. He is still in a honeymoon phase.

As far as the crime situation is concerned, he is on target. He has moved
quickly to address the crime problem.

When I look at education, there is more that needs to be done. We need to
put just as much emphasis on educating our children as we do with regard to
locking them up.

We need to put just as much emphasis on looking at the number of people who
drop out as we look at people who are harmed because of crime.

But overall, his initial focus was to try to look at the crime problem and
address it. He's done a pretty good job of that. Now it appears that he is
moving more toward trying to address the problems of the neighborhoods,
rebuilding the neighborhoods. After all, those are the people who live here
and pay the taxes. So I think the jury is still out there, and we'll have
to wait and see.