Pubdate: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 Source: Beacon Journal, The (OH) Copyright: 2001 The Beacon Journal Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.ohio.com/bj/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/6 Author: Rev. Samuel R. Ciccolini Note: The writer, a Roman Catholic priest, is director of the Interval Brotherhood Home on South Main Street in Coventry Township. 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Lou King