CONFRONT DRUG, ALCOHOL ABUSE

If I may offer an addendum to Cisco Robinson's letter of May 25.

This may sound absurd, but I moved to this town to get away from
drugs. If you think it's bad here, go live out in one of the rural
counties; you can smell the methamphetamine epidemic seething in the
background.

Or, if it's an issue of finding things to do, Robinson could make an
excursion to Portland. Eugene is something of a distant suburb to
them, anyway. There's plenty to keep him busy up there. Portland is
also the junkie capital of America.

My point is, it's everywhere you go nowadays. Every community in this
nation needs to acknowledge the problem and direct focus to it. What
Robinson was getting at is that we need to address the underlying
causes of drug and alcohol abuse, not simply enforce punitive measures
on those who get caught.

The problem is societal, medical and spiritual, not criminal. The
methadone program was initiated under Republican Richard Nixon's
administration. As for spirituality, there are solid reasons why there
is particular emphasis in Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous
for accepting God as we understand him or her.

The issues confronting youth simply aren't a priority in most
communities - and the issues of addicted youth count even less in our
society.

Ian Epstein

Eugene