OPINION/COLUMN: Lower WV Child Abuse, Illegal Drug Use, and Use Fines for Pot Holes

While we are at it, I wish someone would admit that we must curb drugs to stop the increasing breaking and entering surge. We must curb drugs to stop the increase in armed robberies. We also must curb drugs to increase work productivity. We must curb drugs to lower our high school dropout rate. Maybe you can see the pattern here, but my point is that the drug problem is directly rated to almost every social issue that we have.

I know everyone thinks I dwell on this example, but I just can't keep from constantly going back to campaign ads and say that our streets are safe and Huntington is safest it's been since the mid 80's. That statement was absolute garbage but Joe Huntington and his wife live in a bubble and they REALLY want to believe that. The problem is that once they venture out in the streets they become some sort of negative statistic. Blind faith in anything, will get you killed in this day and age.

The article is absolutely correct. According to the article in the Charleston Gazette http://wvgazette.com/News/201212250109 : "Children are dying from abuse and neglect at a higher rate in West Virginia than any other state, a problem that judges, social workers and others say is fueled by rampant substance abuse and likely to grow unless lawmakers get serious about finding and paying for solutions."

The article continues: "We are headed for a whole generation of lost souls," worries Nicholas County Circuit Judge Gary Johnson, who says nearly 90 percent of the child-welfare cases he hears involve substance abuse. "We don't address it until we address the drug issue."

I've been jumping and down trying to make as many people as possible aware of the drug problem in this area. The drug problem is the root of most, if not all, of our social problems. Awareness is the first step in solving these problems. So I'm hoping that if I can make enough people aware of the problem, then someone will get the ball rolling toward a solution. Sometimes the situation feels useless, but every now and then; when someone in the government or law enforcement admits there is a problem, I feel like we have a chance. It takes guts for someone in the government to stand up and say we need to stop drugs because often these officials are the ones that people hold responsible to make our community safe. The officials will often lie to make it look like they are doing there jobs. If people do not think there is a problem then they won't be after these public servants to do their jobs.

So please join me in getting our elected officials to do the jobs we elected them for: most of the problems we wish they would solve are linked to drug abuse. Well, I know the 5th Avenue flooding problem and higher taxes are not caused by this, but hmmmm.... maybe we could use the fines collected from drug dealers to help turn red ink into black ink. After all, there are many drug dealers out there not paying taxes, maybe if we can get the courts to prosecute the ones that our police catch, we can fine them and use the money to pay to fix a few things around this town. So just think of it this way, for every drug dealer we can catch, prosecute and fine, there's extra potholes we can get filled.