FORMER ADDICTS SAY THEY NEED JOBS

GREENSBORO -- Tammi Walden was speaking from the heart and everybody in the
room knew it. Getting accepted by society after a 20-year crack habit is
almost as hard as beating crack.

"I need a job," she said. "And I can't get one. I have to be honest --
drugs are almost looking good to me again."

Walden, 37, was one of several former addicts who spoke Wednesday evening
at a town meeting of the Guilford County Substance Abuse Coalition. She and
others told a panel of coalition members that the community must marshal
its considerable resources and come together as one before it can ever hope
to wipe out substance abuse in the county.

The meeting, attended by about 50 people, was the second in the coalition's
battle against substance abuse -- especially crack cocaine addiction.

The coalition will meet again tonight in High Point at the Millis Regional
Health Education Center at 600 N. Elm St.

The coalition agreed to lead the fight against substance abuse after a
series of stories in the News & Record last November showed that Guilford
County taxpayers spend tens of millions of dollars every year to pay for
crack's costs in the areas of health, child abuse and crime. The series of
town meetings is aimed at gathering information to develop a plan to combat
substance abuse.

Walden and other former addicts told the coalition panel that drug dealers
were in business because it was a means to make a living. "A lot of people
think they have no other way," said one former addict who had been homeless
and spent time in prison. "They want the American dream, just like
everybody else. Let's try to economically empower some of these people."

Panel member Nancy Hunter, a consultant for the coalition, said Guilford
County has the resources to combat substance abuse but must learn how to
coordinate them. "We are research rich and coordination poor."

Panel member John Mack, a former addict who now works with Malachi House in
Greensboro, agreed that jobs must be found for former addicts.

Panel member Rick Ball, commander of the Greensboro Police Department's
vice and narcotics division, told the crowd that the city is using a "more
comprehensive approach" in fighting crack cocaine and other dealers, such
as using nuisance laws to shut down crack houses.

The audience applauded when Ball said police are now much more likely to
"go after the big guys" in the drug trade. "That's always a question I get:
'Why don't you go after the big dealers?' I want to tell you that we're
taking down some big guys in neighborhoods like Sedgefield and Irving Park."

Ball said the police do not seek publicity on those investigations because
to do so would be to hinder succeeding investigations. "One always leads to
another," he said.

Coalition director George Coates told the crowd that Greensboro is at a
crossroads "literally and figuratively." He noted that Death Valley is the
name given for the dangerous intersection of major highways in Greensboro.
Those highways carry drugs into Greensboro and bring misery and death, he said.

"The community must come together and stop this deadly traffic," he said.