Drug Addicts

A fellow named Joseph contacted me the other day. He's one of Baltimore's many drug addicts, still alive at 33, clean for once, and looking for a job. "I started smoking crack at the age of 14, shooting heroin at the age of 16," he says. "I am on parole and probation, and I can't find a job anywhere ... It seems like every time I get an interview, everything is great until they do a background check. I'm going to [violate my parole] soon due to non-payment of the [parole] supervision fees.

A Baltimore prosecutor offered jurors in a murder trial a painful and troubling portrait Wednesday of the victim's final moments, describing how a killer "suffocated and butchered" the boy , whose screams for help she said went unheard by a relative   who had passed out from heroin, The Sun's Peter Hermann reports: Assistant State's Attorney Jennifer Hastings held up two oversized pictures of 15-year-old Jason Mattison Jr., pointed...

Singer Mario knows from first-hand experience how it is to grow up with a parent with substance abuse problems and now he wants to use what he knows to help other kids. The Baltimore native, whose mother has suffered from drug abuse for years, is using his non-profit to help prevent substance abuse in middle and high school students in the Baltimore area. The Mario Do Right Foundation will house the program at the REACH! School, a Baltimore school that focuses on getting kids into college.

Many people pick quitting smoking as their New Year's resolution. But if quitting smoking was easy, most smokers would have already done it. Tobacco is highly addictive and the process isn't easy, but quitting is possible for those who really are ready and are linked to methods that work for them, says Christine Schutzman, a certified tobacco treatment specialist who leads a free Freshstart smoking cessation program at the Cancer Institute at St. Joseph...

I think it's fantastic that Rev. Milton Williams is sticking his neck out on behalf of addicts in Baltimore by proposing to open his clinic to more people in serious need of methadone treatment ("Pastor to open on-demand methadone clinic at church," June 24). One thing the article did not mention is that methadone does not make addicts high but reduces cravings that lead to drug-seeking behavior and crime. However, it's imperative that readers know that methadone is also a highly effective primary treatment for chronic pain.

The motto of the Helping Up Mission is "serving the broken men of Baltimore. " Each night, about 50 to 60 men walk through the shelter's doors on East Baltimore Street at Exeter Street in Jonestown. There are bunk beds available, as well as a meal, medical treatment and laundry facilities. But that is only part of the story. Most new arrivals are battling alcohol and drug addictions. They can stay longer if they commit to turning their lives around and getting sober. Many do. The Helping Up Mission houses an additional 350 men in its long-term program.

I am appalled that The Baltimore Sun in its investigative zest has portrayed Baltimore Behavioral Health as a greedy, improperly diagnosing, non-caring and potentially criminal operation ( "Hooked on treatment," Nov. 7 and "Sheltered addicts, strained recovery," Nov. 8). What The Sun fails to realize is that when drug addicts finally seek treatment, they are desperate — they have ruined health and family life, job loss, financial crisis or criminal court order to be in treatment.

If there was any doubt that Baltimore's legal system is a miserable failure, it should have been put to rest with what we've learned about the murder of Stephen Pitcairn. Late Sunday evening, a day away from his 24th birthday and just back from a visit to his sister in New York, he was walking up St. Paul Street from the train station to his Charles Village apartment. As he walked, he talked on the phone with his mother, Gwen, of Jupiter, Fla., who heard him being accosted, heard a male voice say, "Shut up," and listened as her son was stabbed in the chest despite having turned over his money to his alleged killers.

Baltimore County — and specifically, Councilman Kevin Kamenetz — declared victory in a long-fought legal battle this week over whether a methadone clinic could operate in a residential area just north of the city line in Pikesville. It is a victory in that methadone clinics, just like any other business, are a good fit in some areas and not in others, and it would have been unreasonable if the Americans with Disabilities Act prevented the county or other local governments from exercising any control over where one is located.

G eorge Gregory "Blue" Epps, a recovering addict and an addiction counselor whose struggle was depicted in "The Corner," the book which later became a critically acclaimed HBO miniseries, died of undetermined causes Nov. 15 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Highlandtown resident was 59. "We are waiting for the results of an autopsy for a cause of death," said his wife of nine years, the former Valerie Bolling. Mr. Epps was born in Baltimore and raised in West Baltimore.