QUEEN ANNE'S BRINGING BACK UNIQUE ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM

STEVENSVILLE - It has been more than a decade since the last Haunted Crack
House was staged. And now, with the return to Queen Anne's County of Eric
Johnson, one of the program's founding volunteers, plans for a 2002 Haunted
Crack House are in the works. On Monday evening, a meeting was held at the
Kent Island Elks Lodge 2576 in Stevensville to answer the question: Is the
Haunted Crack House a project that should remain a fond memory, or is it
worthy of revival?

By meeting's end the answer was made loud and clear. Bring it back!

The meeting was an open forum, a reunion of sorts, where Haunted Crack
House committee members and volunteers from years past reflected on the
powerful message that the Haunted Crack House program effectively sent to
all of the visitors who passed through its doors.

Julius Bennett, a recovering addict, said, "I can remember seeing family
members leaving many of the rooms ... and mothers and daughters holding
hands and crying. And I saw that and thought about the conversations that
probably got sparked up at home. And the difference that made in the
family's life where they could actually sit down and talk about drug and
alcohol abuse."

He continued, "I am sure it had to have an effect on somebody ... using the
'show me, don't tell me' method, seeing is believing ... I am sure that
there were some people who gave it a second thought before picking up that
drink or smoking that joint, remembering the reality that they saw in the
Crack House."

Bennet also said, "As I was leaving home tonight, my youngest son, who is
10, asked me where I was going. And when I told him about this meeting, he
asked, "Well what is that (haunted crack house)?" So we have a whole
generation out there who needs to see this."

That sentiment of the need to educate today's youths about the dangers and
pitfalls of becoming involved with drugs was made chillingly clear by the
statistics brought to the meeting by Queen Anne's County Sheriff Charles
Crossley Jr.

He reported, "In 1998 and 1999, 46 percent of all arrests made in Queen
Anne's County were involved in a CDS (controlled dangerous substance), DWI,
or liquor violation (underage/juvenile drinking) ... 70 to 80 percent of
criminal activity involves drinking, drugs ... criminal activity like
breaking and entering, thefts, homicide ... numbers like this point out the
relationship between drinking and drugs and an increase in criminal activity."

Candidate for State's Attorney and former assistant state's attorney Frank
Kratovil said, "As a prosecutor and doing it for three and a half years, it
(drugs) is the biggest problem we have in this county. We don't have the
violent crimes that you see in a lot of the other jurisdictions ...
although that's changing somewhat... but we do have a serious drug problem."

"About a year before I left the office, we engaged in a wire tap
investigation where we tapped phones for a couple of individuals that were
suspected of being rather large dealers for the county," Kratovil said.
"And I can tell you from firsthand experience, listening to those calls
that came in, it wasn't limited to any race, to any age. It was across the
spectrum. And it was also across the spectrum in terms of drugs. It really
opened my eyes to the seriousness of the problem that we have in this
county. The drugs that were requested the most were crack and heroin."

The statistics were eye-opening. And Eric Johnson was visibly fired up
about the group's obvious interest in moving forward.

His question was answered. The Haunted Crack House program lives again.