Pubdate: Wed, 01 Oct 2014
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2014 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Kevin McNamara

THOSE IN GRIP OF ADDICTION NEED TO KNOW THAT THERE ARE ANSWERS

Re "Hooked. Terrified. Trapped.": It doesn't sound as if UMass 
Amherst is taking this student's heroin overdose seriously. There 
should be signs all over the place about what happened to him. 
Wherever there are young people, there is access to all drugs. That's 
the deal everywhere and anywhere; make no mistake about it.

The campus police should not be using these young people as 
informants. I really sympathize with what the police have to do, but 
these kids are too young to be caught up in it, as we clearly see in 
the case of the student in this story. He thought he was getting away 
with it, but he sounded a few days later as if he knew he really was not.

My heart breaks for his family. This does not need to happen. There 
are people living drug-free for years after using heroin and dealing 
with the disease of addiction. It's not easy, but it definitely can 
be done. We should share more stories about such people so that 
others can know it's a real possibility.

Kevin McNamara

Cambridge
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