Letter writer Marc Raim remarked that using or not using drugs is a choice and that until people choose not to use drugs the violence in Baltimore will continue ("Reducing the number addicts is the key to reducing violence," June 4).
Clearly Mr. Raim is like most people who haven't experienced addiction first-hand. In his defense, however, I was just like him until I experienced the devastation of addiction six years ago.
I learned — like most of us do — the hard way: That addiction is a terrible disease we ignore until we are directly affected. Some of the smartest, most compassionate people you will ever meet succumb to addiction.
Once affected, you learn very quickly that you are on your own, with almost zero help from society or the medical community.
Physicians with addiction expertise are scarce at best, even if you have unlimited resources to pay for them.
The vast majority of drug rehab programs not only are ineffective but can even be detrimental. They are nothing more than a rip-off, preying on families that are coaxed into pouring their life savings into the effort to help a loved one.
What's worse is that families that are poor or of modest means have almost zero chance of getting adequate help or of maintaining any hope at all.
All of us need to get our heads out of the sand and recognize that addiction is a disease that requires the best research, funding, insurance coverage and treatment possible.
Until then, the vicious cycle of addiction, crime and death will continue to destroy good people, families and cities. It is an illness unlike any other. And it is affecting us all directly or indirectly as crime rises in the city and state.
Jeff Donnelly, Cockeysville