DESPITE CUT$, ONE MAN VOWS TO KEEP FIGHTING

New Bedford teen drug counselor Robert McPherson vowed to continue fighting
the war on drugs, even though funding for his job ran out.

But when Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson found out the retired Navy officer
wasn't getting paid, he opened up his checkbook.

"It's too important to not have him working with these kids because they're
real targets," Hodgson said of his decision to pay McPherson $18,000 out of
his drug task force budget. "So we're going to pick up the tab."

The sheriff will pay McPherson's salary through September, which is when
the state is expected to re-fund the New Bedford Juvenile Drug Court post.
As one of three juvenile drug court case managers in the state, McPherson
counsels kids between 14 and 16 and their families, oversees random drug
tests, keeps tabs on their schoolwork and enforces curfews. "This is my way
of giving back to the community," McPherson said.

A New Bedford native who moved away for two decades, McPherson joined the
war on heroin in the Whaling City after learning about 25 friends dying
from the drug.

"It's alarming," he said. "I think the Legislature has to face the reality
that (treatment) beds are needed here. We have nowhere to send these kids."