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Harford's drug problem

Have a frank discussion with just about anyone who works on the front lines of a public health agency or a police department and odds are the subject will turn to drug and alcohol abuse.

It's this way in Harford County, and across the country: Most crime and many social ills can be traced to the abuse of mind-altering substances — be they legal like alcohol, strictly controlled like prescription medications and pain killers, or outright illegal like cocaine, heroin, marijuana, magic mushrooms or any one of a dozen or so contraband drugs.

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That reality was reflected this week when a group of people whose lives and families have been affected by drug abuse began raising the issue of a need for more and stronger anti-drug programs in Harford County Public Schools.

Certainly experimentation with drugs by young people is a big problem and has been for generations. Some outgrow it. Some never try it. Some end up hooked for life. Some manage to struggle for years to get beyond it. Does that mean the school system is the appropriate place for teaching drug avoidance?

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It's as good a place as any.

Then again, police agencies deal regularly with intoxicated people. Does that mean police departments need to have a social services element to their operations?

Hard to say. To some extent, they do because when people with drug problems are arrested, they often end up staying in jail, effectively in the custody of police.

On the extremes of the political discussion are two solutions: Legalize drugs and let people do as they will versus crack down and throw them all in jail. The easy access to alcohol, a legal drug, shows that legalization doesn't do away with criminal activity and human misery associated with abuse. And the harsh reality that a high percentage of people in prisons are there on drug-related offenses, is evidence that cracking down won't necessarily cut it either.

The answer to the situation is probably one most people don't want to hear, namely that schools, police, parents, friends and faith communities all need to be involved in doing what they can to prevent drug abuse among young people. Like it or not, it takes a community effort to deal with a community-wide problem as vexing as substance abuse.

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