KING PRAISES WORK DONE AT DRUG REHAB

Alabama Attorney General Troy King on Tuesday called a local drug treatment
facility a "brilliant village" that's needed to stem the tide of
drug-related crimes in the area and around the state.

King was the keynote speaker during a luncheon that The Shoulder held to
thank supporters of the Spanish Fort facility, including the North and South
Baldwin United Way agencies, the Monte Moorer Foundation, the Joseph
Treadwell Foundation and volunteer Virgil Spivey.

The 16-year-old center provides long-term residential drug and alcohol
treatment for men and outpatient treatment for men and women on a for-profit
basis.

"Your help and support creates a beam that leads many out of the darkness,"
King said, speaking to a crowd of more than 50 listeners. "And that light
burns with intensity."

Last year, more than 38,000 Alabamians were arrested on substance-abuse
charges, adding to a prison population that is twice what the system was
designed to serve, King said. Although more of those with drug abuse
problems usually end up incarcerated, treatment can help an addict discover
the root of his addiction, King said.

"Your work touches all of us," King said. "It makes our streets safe and our
families safer and stronger."

And the support for rehabilitation programs is desperately needed, Phillip
Drane, executive director of The Shoulder, said during his remarks following
King's speech.

Drane gave the crowd some sobering statistics. The age that addicts report
first experimenting with drugs and alcohol is between age 8 and 10.

"This is what our clients are telling us now," he said. "One told me the
other week that he had been smoking marijuana every day since he was 10
years old.

"Drug (abuse) affects eight other people around the addict, family members,
co-workers. ... There are 15 million people abusing alcohol and drugs.
Multiply that by eight and see what you get."

And it costs the nation around $185 billion annually to deal with drug
abuse-related problems, he said.

"I could get current on a lot of bills if I had that kind of money," Drane
said.

Mobile County District Judge George Hardesty Jr. said that after serving
nearly two decades as prosecutor, he knows that many of the cases involving
burglaries, robberies, forgeries, even murder, have drug abuse as a subtext.

"It plays a part on so much of what I have seen," Hardesty said.

The Shoulder opened in 1988. Its treatment program incorporates essential
beliefs of the Christian faith as well components of the traditional 12-step
programs. Its program was certified by the Alabama Department of Mental
Health and Mental Retardation. The facility has 35 clients living at its
Battleship Parkway site.