CITY NEEDS PLAN TO ADDRESS DRUG PROBLEM

I am a student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro majoring
in social work and very concerned about my community. I lived in Asheville
most of my life before I went to college, and it was one of the best places
to raise a family, facilitate and participate in community activities.
Since I left the Asheville area, there have been more crimes and
drug-related incidents.

Asheville is facing a serious problem of drug dealers and abusers. Somehow
our community is focused on the beautification of our landmarks, but less
focused on the people that live in this community. How can we deal with
this problem that seems to be so overwhelming? We are being cowards and not
taking on the problem.

I suggest that we start exhibiting genuine concern about the issues and
problems in our city. We need to improve mentoring programs for children
and more outreach programs. We teach our children to "just say no to
drugs," but we allow ourselves to say yes by neglecting the fact that there
is a problem. This is a plea to my community to use our resources and
develop a plan to improve the social welfare of the Asheville community.

Rasheeda McDaniels,

Greensboro