August wrote: "I read doom and gloom-and self pity-in your post"
I guess the irony escaped you. Why should I have self pity. I've had 29 years of sobriety which has made me the happiest I have ever been! I have spent the last ten of these years trying to help people and hopefully have been of some assistance in dealing with this terrible situation. But I doubt that anyone can quarrel with the statement that for more than sixty years the drug problem has grown worse. Today it is often called an epidemic. Things were very, very different when I was a kid. I'm ninety now.
Obviously graveyards should not be a growth industry! And prisons, particularly privately owned, profit making prisons, should not be permitted. And corruption in prisons! Something can be done about it. A person broke into our house, tied up my wife and me and stole her engagement ring. I learned that he had been in state prison for ten years and had maintained his heroin habit the whole time, no doubt with the connivance of some of the prison guards. He's back, serving more than 50 years. Far from being gloomy, I say we must fight for what is right and you are doing that. Good for you! I applaud what you are doing and have joined in that fight. That is the purpose of this post and of all that I do on SR. I thank God for bringing me back.
W.