Heroin – Law – Compassion

Heroin is truly the playground of the Devil.  

You treat us like a Dad.  Lots of us aint got no Dad, you treat us like a Dad.  I reached over the seat and shook his hand while staring into his eyes.  And in that man to man way that young men have, he quietly left the taxi.

    I drove a taxi in Syracuse for several years.  I roamed the streets 6 nights a week, 12 hours a day.  Few, other than Policemen accumulate inner city, inter-human experiences on such a personal level.  I learned many things on the streets.  Perhaps most importantly I learned that those involved with drugs are seldom inherently bad individuals.  Most are victims.  They are born into a culture of disadvantage.  Poverty and lack of opportunity are extreme.  Parental guidance is often severely impaired and even when present, in this culture of poverty the streets usually win.  The devastation of drugs is part of life and is viewed with little principled difference than alcohol and cigarettes have in middle class communities.  The answer does not lie in 6 by 8 cells.   

It is my hope to highlight a thinking on a local level regarding rehabilitation processes.  The rest of the column will justify why.  Currently violent felons have access to Rehabs in the Big House.  (State Prisons for Serious Crimes) This in-house access is not available for misdemeanor crimes that result in stays at the Justice Center or Jamesville.  (Where time for lower level crimes is served)  The kid brought up in the “drug culture of inner city streets” where addiction is everywhere does not have this early in-house option.  

Syracuse Community Treatment Court (Drug Court) is an excellent tool and I am sure saves lives.  For those emotionally prepared for voluntary recovery and are able to benefit it is a priceless program.  However too few opt for Drug Court and fewer are able to adhere to the strict disciplines required.  A rehab option while serving would be a priceless tool for users, judges and society.  It also would provide judges a place to mandate the vast majority too weak for drug court opportunities.   It is common for addicts to do several months or more for misdemeanors, several times, and each time return immediately to addiction.  (Especially in the world of heroin)  The system accomplishes nothing here except exacting a “punishment without value” from susceptible misguided young minds over exposed to society’s failures.

There is “nothing” wrong with the Justice system being able to “mandate” rehabilitation for any crime with a drug component or when there is any evidence of a weakened state due to drugs.  The essence of this article is to encourage law that would allow this mandate.  A voluntary component as a determinant would be far too ineffective standing alone.  Inner city addicts do not have a feel for the wrong or the long range hell that has invaded their life.  They need to be shown a value system.  They need to be taught these basics to have a chance.  Before they are too far gone.  From the age of recognition drugs have been a part of their lives.   

It isn’t folks here and there that suffer from addiction.  In large portions of every side of town; every city block is permeated with drugs.  It is a deadly humanity decimating epidemic.  Drug crime among youth is the significant part of incarceration in both the Justice Center and Jamesville.  (And the Big House)  Jamesville is a revolving door among the addicted.  In house rehabilitation may well significantly reduce recidivism as well as initiate thinking that may redirect lifestyle.  After losing much of their youth to drugs and incarceration most graduate to state prisons.  The system must be able to promptly intervene at low level crime (and before which I will address) if the desire is to constructively reform the individual to live in society.  Herewith some very applicable thinking: 

The drug world has high and low level participation.  They are as different as night and day.  On the Criminal Justice end most concentration must be on the high level sober individuals involved in supply.  In this arena rehabs are useless.  These are full blooded criminals.  We must be able to differentiate where severe criminal culpability applies and where valid low level cultural mitigation applies.  Law must be designed with this in mind.  (A Commission to revise Drug Laws and develop in-house funding is the starting point)  I am reminded of an old wise saying:  “Nothing good can start until you make a beginning”.

Where supply is divided into thousands of little dealers is where real criminals make their real money.  These points must be found and not only eliminated but traced back to origins, decimating all structures along this path.  To say we can’t or we tried is an American failure of the highest order.  We can if we try, pure and simple.  This reckless permeation that destroys young American minds will begin to end when we decide we have the “will” to match care with action.  Leadership itself must be carefully rethought.  We have a DEA.  Find out why this department is useless.  What are we missing?  They must have an integrity and authority comparable to the idea of the Untouchables that fought the mob in the 1930’s.  A great Patriotic American need, saving innumerable lives, adding productivity to our economy, special training, integrity and great pride are tools that draw the kinds of men and women that would get this scourge under control.  

This is a massive problem.  It must be attacked on several fronts.   Effort and priority in America simply does not match the size and scope of this problem.   Many that are involved in Substance Abuse Recovery claim that until the victim wants it, recovery efforts are not productive.  They also believe in bottoming out.  For the advanced addict this is often true however we must beware of treating cliché as rule.  Every word and deed in an addict’s life is part of what I call their personal system of emotional triggers.  When enough of the “right” triggers are pulled recovery starts to become attractive.  Bottoms vary and influence can move recovery forward.  At the stage of a Misdemeanor is a perfect time to require treatment.

The attraction to drugs is great when there is so little opportunity.  Unemployment rates among youth in poor communities often reach 50% or more.   In many cities and/or communities, they have been left to squander and they know it.  What the courts often miss is that the drug culture (and that money can be made) is ingrained during formative years.  Why not implement other systems during this critical forming period of life?  Target with great expertise these forming years of children.  Parents, pre-schools, schools, movies, cartoons and any youth social activity can all be addressed in ways to form correct thinking at the same time children learn of God and Country.  Syracuse is the perfect size to implement and test systems.  Of course we have to wait for a compassionate Mayor.  Done well, we can set the standard for others around the country.  

I have friends that have this horrible problem in their lives.  I do not have permission to fully explain but please know I have never felt so helpless.  One died recently and the other is in an advanced stage.  From Hollywood across the land, in every city, to Syracuse and beyond, we are permeated with scourge and death.  It is a massive American problem.  Why is this deadly blight not yet worth the real fight?   

 Heroin addicts wake up each day, immediately feeling a near irresistible need for a fix.  The disease causes one to pick at their body.  The face, legs and bellies of most addicts are partially shredded with current bloody digs and past scars.  And we lock them up in droves.  Usually for crimes committed to get a fix.  There is little concentration placed on identifying the disease.  Often in clear view it is not a priority when in truth it is “The” priority.  The system makes extraordinarily little effort to rehabilitate and instead demands anti-productive and cruel punishment from these dejected and deeply afflicted human beings.  

I will leave you with a reality.  Picture a wholesome young man or woman that you know.  Picture them 3 years later, skinny, in the streets, gaunt features, battered tear jerking looks, body picked scarred and often bleeding, sunken dark eyes, dejected, by now with a history of stealing or manipulating in any way for the drug, no school, no work, unable to perceive or properly care about nearness to death, the beauty and kindness they once knew gone.  No direct way to stop them.  Picture those that are still alive.  Feel the hopelessness.  These analogies are seldom appropriate, but in this instance, with this scale of horror, I think maybe so.  I am reminded of a train to Auschwitz loaded with human cargo.  With nearly every avenue for survival plugged.  Because the good were not trying.  Now picture the wake.      

Bill McClellan