LIBERATION FROM DRUG TERRORISM'S CLUTCHES

For more than 30 years, I have witnessed the modus operandi of the
terrorists who perpetrated the Sept. 11 attack on our nation. I have seen
the faces of the men, women and youngsters whose lives have been devastated
by addiction to cocaine, heroin or their derivatives.

Each once-clean person who has engaged in the use, abuse and trafficking of
these substances has unknowingly collaborated with these terrorists. The
faceless enemy who has invaded our country and, the past decade, attacked
American embassies, government buildings and innocent people abroad has had
at hand trillions of dollars.

Terrorists can credit their stealth-like incursion into the lives of
American addicts for their financial riches.

Each American who has ever stolen money or property from parents, places of
work, neighbors or children's piggy-banks to feed an addiction has
unknowingly invested in the devastation of terrorists.

Americans who have left legitimate jobs to earn their living from predatory
or consensual crime, such as selling their bodies on the streets in the
dark of night, have acted as silent partners with terrorists. Millions of
people have tragically died with no idea their use of substances was
hand-in-hand loading the guns of assassins.

Each student, nurse, doctor, laborer, minister, sports or rock star,
mother, son, father, daughter or anyone up to Sept. 11 who bought,
trafficked or profited from the sale of illegal substances has helped
finance the world of terrorism. For what they paid to get high, they
unknowingly brought into our world a time of fear, destruction and death.

In the days, months and years before that unforgettably beautiful September
morning in New York City was shattered, our presidents, law enforcement
authorities, researchers, health-care providers and alcohol- and
drug-treatment counselors had sounded the alarm to what addiction was doing
to our nation. Each drug addict who has sought refuge and help from the
Interval Brotherhood Home is a survivor of the attack on their lives.

In 1991, Pope John Paul II warned that "alcoholism and drug addiction due
to their intrinsic seriousness are two phenomena that threaten the human race."

On Sept. 11, for America, the threat became reality.

The terrorists who killed themselves and thousands of innocent people came
from and have their hands on countries where cocaine, heroin and other
drugs are harvested, processed and then distributed.

Recent estimates reveal that international trade in illicit drugs generates
some $400 billion a year, representing a huge slice of all world trade.
Rudimentary math reveals that in the course of 30 years, an underground
world bank of astronomical power and wealth has been created.

A corollary to this ugly picture is the enormous cost of drug abuse to
American society. As long ago as 1992, the cost to our society for
substance abuse and alcoholism was $246 billion, or $963 per person. Drug
abuse alone cost $383.

It is impossible to put a number on the cost over the past 10 years of
related aspects, the spread of HIV and AIDS, the affect on health-care
services, criminal justice and productivity. This nation incarcerates more
of its population than any nation on Earth. An estimated 80 percent of
these people are behind bars because of an entanglement with illegal drugs
or alcohol.

Since 1970, those of us at the Interval Brotherhood Home have been
privileged to serve men, women, children on a life of recovery, dignity and
reconciliation. In order to continue this vital service, we desperately
need the renewal of Issue 1, the Summit County Board of Alcohol, Drug
Addiction and Mental Health Services tax levy. This levy is not a tax
increase. Its passage would provide the operating money we need for
utilities, food, medicine, supplies and services given by our counselors,
nurses, doctors and therapists for the next six years.

This 3.05-mill renewal levy is our primary source of funding, as well as
for the related 23 agencies we rely on for coordination of professional
services. Each agency of the ADM Board is a frontline service provider for
the poor and needy. Every ADM professional knows the look of destruction
that the direct and consequent effects of drug addiction have caused. This
renewal levy will continue to cost the average homeowner in Summit County
about 14 cents a day, or about 98 cents a week. It will help us save lives.

Without the success of this levy, the IBH and our member service agencies
will be up against the wall to keep our doors open.

As with each person we have been privileged to witness overcoming the
destructive forces of drug addiction and achieving a life of renewed
energy, strength and dignity, so will our country rise from the ground zero
ashes of the World Trade Center.

Each person we can shelter and serve with your support is a survivor of the
terrorists who stalk our world. Support Issue 1 and you encourage the
return to a land of the truly free and brave.