TO CURB VIOLENCE, ADDRESS DRUGS

When it comes to discussion of crime in Greater Cincinnati, gun
violence takes center stage. But the issue that underlies it,
overlaps and surrounds it is illegal drug use.

And on that topic, for any number of reasons, we have all been far too silent.

It is a dangerous silence, as we saw this week when, police say, two
suburban residents were shot to death trying to buy drugs in
Over-the-Rhine. The coroner's report showed cocaine and other drugs
in their systems.

For those of us who would rather see the violence in the city as a
problem with "them" instead of with "us" - with residents of the
inner-city rather than those of the suburbs - who believe we can
protect ourselves if we just avoid certain blocks at certain times,
it was an uncomfortable wake-up call.

Illegal drug use is the nasty, extremely profitable enterprise that
can turn suburbanites into contributors and abettors of the violence
they see in the inner-city. But - as we see more and more often - it
is also the shady chauffeur that can bring unthinkable violence right
to our tidy front door, whether that front door is in Sharonville or Florence.

When it comes to that violence, guns may be the means, and violence
may be the milieu, but many times the motive is drugs. And so, heroic
as it may be, gathering up the guns is not the only or necessarily
the most effective way to address this issue. Putting more police on
the corners is, likewise, important but not enough.

Those are supply-side efforts and as such form half the solution. The
missing half is addressing demand.

It also may be the more doable half - the half that ordinary citizens
can best address.

It starts with parents, educators, religious leaders and youth
advocates who take a stand against drugs, who give their kids
something better to do and something better to believe in.

It continues to communities that offer youth more positive activities
and schools that teach good prevention.

It reaches to family, friends, teachers, employers, neighbors,
religious instructors and others who keep people they care about
accountable - who step up at the first signs of drug use and who walk
alongside until the problem is resolved.

It ends in making sure people with drug dependencies have access to
the treatment programs they need.

The randomness and brazenness of recent shootings and drug-related
violence can lead us to fatalism, denial or paralysis. Gun violence
and drug cartels are such big issues that we could throw our
shoulders out of joint just trying to get our arms around them.

But all of us can talk to our children. All of us can find a way to
support youth activities. All of us can set a good example. All of us
can support programs that address prevention and treatment.

This week brought bitter lessons. It also brought the chance to be
enlightened by them.

The world is smaller than we think, and none of us is insulated from
its frailties.