In the small town of Chelsea,
Massachusetts there is a big and serious problem. Detective David Betz tells us
that his day is about to get busy around 8pm, but whose day starts then? A
heroin addict’s day. Betz will try and contact one of the dealers, hopefully
able to buy the drugs from him off the street, and then make his arrest. He
says that this town has such a profound drug problem because of how small it
is. Because it is so small there is lower income and resources. As Betz says,
“Why would you want to deliver pizza for $8 an hour when you can make $800?”
The detective describes how these drugs end up in these towns by describing as
an “artery-like” system. They first are imported from an international country,
and then smuggled to New York, then Rhode Island or Connecticut, then Boston
Massachusetts. After that it’s a short drive over the Bridge to Chelsea.
However, most of these dealers and buyers in Chelsea are not from there, they
are from other major cities/towns around the area. According to the Drug
Enforcement Administration, this isn’t a problem just in Chelsea, but all over
the country and as Betz says, “the people themselves have to have the will and
the desire to want to get past it themselves. If they don’t, there’s no public
service programs or no magic pill to better the problem.” Sadly, for now “drugs
are as American as apple pie.”
This
article was written by Chris Boyette and Deb Feyerick, from CNN, this morning
(Aug. 27). The authors point of view tends to be sided with the detective (as
should be), but also gives us the perspective of a heroin addict which is
included in a video attached to the article. This is helpful so we can see the
reasoning behind the addict’s addiction to the drugs an d how easy it is to get
involved in that scene. This article is directed to the general public, to show
that anybody can get addicted, teens to adults, and how quickly it can consume
your life and drag you to a small town, like Chelsea. This article is an
eye-opener to me by showing the system of the drug community and how easy it is
to access it and become addicted.
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ReplyDeleteThis post makes a great argument that by not having a greater income or resources, the drug industry makes for a much more tantalizing and lucrative opportunity. This problem should not be treated only through trying to find and arrest all the drug-dealers. That would be just scratching at the surface of the problem. Attacking the root of the dilemma by creating incentives and stimulating the town's economy would be far more effective.
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