Addicted To Drugs

AN 11-YEAR-OLD suspected heroin dealer was arrested in East Baltimore last week with the drugs and $189 in cash on him. The arrest occurred on Lt. Timothy Devine's shift, and in 20 years on the job, the police veteran said, he had never seen a drug dealer so young. Lieutenant Devine may be the exception -- because the 11-year-old drug dealer is not. In the past decade, city police have arrested 32 11-year-olds and nine 10-year-olds on felony drug charges. These are not runners and lookouts, the youngest recruits in Baltimore's drug trade.

Charles A. Moss Jr. last saw his stepson about a week ago when Anthony Thomas stopped by the house where he grew up and where Moss still lives, a few blocks south of Pimlico Race Course . "He was hustling," Moss said. "He wanted some money. " He said he gave his stepson "a couple bucks" and sent him on his way. Thomas, 45, repeated this pattern every few weeks. He hadn't lived with Moss on Dupont Avenue in 25 years, and two relatives said they had no idea where Thomas spent most nights.

Experts in the substance abuse field have long suspected that women who are addicted to drugs or alcohol are not well served by conventional treatment programs, which traditionally have been targeted at men. Indeed, while there are now epidemic numbers of addicted and deformed babies born to women who use drugs and alcohol, only about 20 percent of the addicts in public substance abuse programs in Maryland are female.One barrier keeping women from treatment is that historically more men have been addicts, and men are more readily identified through criminal activity or activities on the job. As a result, services in coed treatment programs are simply not tailored to the particular health, sexuality and employment concerns of women -- 80 to 90 percent of whom, in addition to their addiction problems, have been victims of rape or incest, few of whom have parenting skills and most of whom have no job skills or employment history.

Marianne Woessner is a North Carolina nurse and midwife who sees drug addicts with good jobs and from good families nearly every day. They occupy a hidden world that belies the stereotype of rail-thin junkies stumbling from one street corner to the next in search of a fix. Woessner was the mother of one such drug addict. She made the discovery Sunday night, when a Baltimore police officer called to tell her that her daughter, Carrie Elisabeth John, died that evening after apparently injecting herself with buprenorphine while trying to get high with her boyfriend, Clinton Blaine McCracken, in their rented rowhouse near downtown.

A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed yesterday morning shortly after he got out of a taxi in Southeast Baltimore, becoming the city's 314th slaying victim of 1998 -- and the 62nd victim younger than age 20, police said.Andre Corey of the 1400 block of Kenhill Ave. was shot about 10: 50 a.m. in the 500 block of N. Linwood Ave. Police said he was wounded several times in the upper body.Agent Angelique Cook-Hayes, a police spokeswoman, said Corey was pronounced dead on arrival at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Marianne Woessner is a North Carolina nurse and midwife who sees drug addicts with good jobs and from good families nearly every day. They occupy a hidden world that belies the stereotype of rail-thin junkies stumbling from one street corner to the next in search of a fix. Woessner was the mother of one such drug addict. She made the discovery Sunday night, when a Baltimore police officer called to tell her that her daughter, Carrie Elisabeth John, died that evening after apparently injecting herself with buprenorphine while trying to get high with her boyfriend, Clinton Blaine McCracken, in their rented rowhouse near downtown.

Drug dealers give free samples to customersIf you think the videotaped evidence of the Sugar Hill gang's drug transactions was "astounding" (Feb. 25, "Brazen city 'drug store' "), then you had better steer clear of many Baltimore neighborhoods.In my neighborhood there are astounding ''drug stores'' and astounding ''drug parades.'' I invite you to visit my neighborhood to see the parade of people marching to pick up ''testers,'' small glass vials containing free samples of crack cocaine thrown about by a new drug dealer in the area.

Mayoral candidate Martin O'Malley issued the first half of his campaign platform yesterday, a 39-page position paper on restoring public safety.The criminal defense attorney and former state prosecutor promised to address what he called Baltimore's chief woe -- illicit drugs -- through a combination of police enforcement and drug treatment.Standing outside the Clarence M. Mitchell Courthouse, O'Malley, surrounded by about 25 supporters, handed out the booklet.O'Malley is calling for the implementation of the "zero tolerance" crime-fighting strategy that has been credited with reducing violent crime in cities such as New York and Cleveland.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has come out in favor of expanding Medicaid eligibility for poor people, a move that could result in the provision of more drug treatment. That would be a welcome development, allowing more addicts to get treatment as well as better health care. Maryland has a serious health care problem, including close to 800,000 people who are uninsured. Although the problem must be addressed through a variety of solutions, expanding Medicaid coverage needs to be part of the mix. The state's current salary threshold is only $6,288 a year for a working parent in a family of three.

He was a local hero, star of the high school basketball team and the first one in his neighborhood to go to college. A decade later, lured by fast money and false prestige, he was selling cocaine.Ron Blake is clean and sober now, but he remembers those days and has used his experiences in an innovative program for young men in Annapolis lured into a dangerous life on the streets.They meet every Monday in an office building off Forest Drive and tell similar stories of lives in poverty. They saw the chance to make some easy money.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has come out in favor of expanding Medicaid eligibility for poor people, a move that could result in the provision of more drug treatment. That would be a welcome development, allowing more addicts to get treatment as well as better health care. Maryland has a serious health care problem, including close to 800,000 people who are uninsured. Although the problem must be addressed through a variety of solutions, expanding Medicaid coverage needs to be part of the mix. The state's current salary threshold is only $6,288 a year for a working parent in a family of three.

Reformed convicts not owed new start Why does Dan Rodricks think that people owe recovering addicts something ("If they can't work, then this city won't work," Oct. 17)? While I applaud anyone who has had the courage and willpower to get clean and stay clean, I think Mr. Rodricks misses that point that no one forces addicts to start using drugs. Where does Mr. Rodricks, or anyone else for that matter, get off suggesting that law-abiding, well-off citizens should feel obligated to give money or jobs to people who chose to live lives of destruction and crime?

AN OPTIMIST could take heart in signs that Baltimore's huge drug problem might just be on the decline. The numbers of fatal overdoses and emergency room visits are trending downward, drug treatment has expanded in the past decade, and surveys suggest there might be a generational shift away from hard drugs. But it is impossible to seriously assess the course of the city's struggle with drugs. And because of that, the city is stuck with a number that has hung around its neck for two decades: 60,000 addicts.

BALTIMORE'S drug cancer has eaten away at people, families and whole neighborhoods for more than three decades. It has affected the entire region in some way and, considering the thousands of citizens involved in this problem, seems intractable, a lost cause. Decriminalization is not the answer. No one I know believes heroin and cocaine are going to be made legal anytime soon. The war on drugs didn't cut the demand for dope, but it certainly gave us the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world.

AN 11-YEAR-OLD suspected heroin dealer was arrested in East Baltimore last week with the drugs and $189 in cash on him. The arrest occurred on Lt. Timothy Devine's shift, and in 20 years on the job, the police veteran said, he had never seen a drug dealer so young. Lieutenant Devine may be the exception -- because the 11-year-old drug dealer is not. In the past decade, city police have arrested 32 11-year-olds and nine 10-year-olds on felony drug charges. These are not runners and lookouts, the youngest recruits in Baltimore's drug trade.

In 2003, Geoff Schoenbaum left his mentor's lab. He had a Ph.D., an M.D. degree, a new son, his first assistant professorship and nearly $1.3 million in grants to continue brain research developed during his association with Michela Gallagher, a world-class neuroscientist at the Johns Hopkins University. It was, one might say, a very special time, the year a young scientist found himself squarely astride the shoulders of giants. His latest work, featured as the cover article the Aug. 28 edition of the journal Neuron, described how one part of the brain, the amygdala, controls representations made in another, the orbitofrontal cortex.

WASHINGTON -- With Mayor Marion S. Barry Jr. completing his first week out of the city seeking "physical, mental and spiritual rejuvenation," city officials have begun considering the possibility that he might resign."

Six days a week, about 300 people funnel through the nondescript EJAL Health Services building in Glen Burnie to take the dose of pink liquid methadone they depend on to keep withdrawal at bay. They're of all ages, races and backgrounds - dentists, used-car salesmen, undertakers. Some bring their small children with them, making a few of the clinic's neighbors in the Crain Highway warehouse strip assume it's a day care. But residents, business owners and elected officials in Baltimore's suburbs are mobilizing against methadone clinics, fearing that they will attract crime and drugs to their neighborhoods.

Treatment works: Results lend urgency to funding proposal It's important to finally have solid, local data that proves addiction treatment works ("Baltimore drug programs prove effective, study finds," Jan. 31). While people in recovery, advocates and professionals in the field have been saying this for many years, only recently has our community come together in agreement that treatment for this disease is an effective and wise investment. Part of the reason for this is the work of the Maryland Drug Treatment Task Force, created through the efforts of Del. Daniel K. Morhaim and Del. Shirley Nathan-Pulliam, and led by Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.