Pubdate: Thu, 10 Jul 2014
Source: Daily Freeman (Kingston, NY)
Copyright: 2014 Daily Freeman
Contact:  http://www.dailyfreeman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3269
Author: Charles Davenport
Page: A8

AMID DRUG PROBLEM, OUTRAGE IS MISDIRECTED

Dear Editor: A connection between the heroin/opioid addiction problem
here in Dutchess County and the current refugee problem on our
nation's Southern border? Certainly.

Recreational drugs, pain relievers and substance abuse/ addiction are
now part of the American way of life; the war on drugs of the 1970s,
'80s,'90s and 2000s is lost, similar to how the "war on alcohol" was
lost in the 1920s. Bootleggers and gangsters were funded by America's
desire for booze in the 1920s. America's current desire for drugs is
much more pervasive, and the horrific consequences are proportionately
much greater.

Women and children currently flocking across our Southern border are
political refugees from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico.
Rapacious governments in these countries share power with various drug
gangs that are funded by the American demand for illegal drugs.
(Eighty percent of cocaine is imported through Honduras, for example.)

There is little resolve to fund programs to treat the heroin/ opioid
addiction that permeates all 3,000 counties of the United States,
including Dutchess; there is some resolve to amend nonsensical
marijuana regulations.

Outrage at the political, social and economic havoc caused by
America's drug habit in neighboring countries? There is very little.
Rather than take responsibility for its citizens' actions, America
directs its outrage at women and children fleeing for their lives.

Charles Davenport

Wappingers Falls
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