DRUG-ABUSE PROBLEMS DEMAND NEW SOLUTIONS

Society is still crumbling. The money spent on drug and substance-abuse
problems in this country has not been effective. After many years of
spending money for law enforcement to get dealers off the streets, the
problem still exists. Drug abuse is still rampant in this city and still
destroying the lives of many families and children.

We need to attack this problem from a different angle. Perhaps it is time
to take some of that enforcement money and provide more substance-abuse
treatment centers. As it stands, most people cannot afford to go into drug
rehab because of the cost.

We need to make these treatment centers available to everyone who needs
help. The few treatment centers that will take the homeless or low-income
people are full and have waiting lists.

Most treatment centers do not include employment programs to help people
get back into the work force after being treated. These people become
discouraged and sometimes fall back into the patterns of abuse. We have to
try new ways of dissolving this generational cycle of substance abuse in
our cities. The current ways are not working. Dawn Lancaster Greensboro