Is the Legalization of All Drugs Far Behind?

Screen Shot 2014-04-24 at 10.37.01 AMWhen I had my son 7 years ago and needed powder baby formula, I went to my local grocery store to buy it and was told I had to go to Customer Service to get it, where it was locked up with the cigarettes.  I wondered why, assuming it was because people in need were trying to steal it because it was priced so high.  It did have to do with “high” but not because of the prices:  people were stealing Similac/Enfamil and selling it on the black market to cut heroin.  Apparently infant formula is non-toxic and safe to cut with any number of drugs.

According to Special Agent Joanna Zoltay in a 2007 interview, “The popular powdered baby formula is primarily used in the drug world to dilute heroin and methamphetamine or to stretch the product when supplies run low.  The consistency and the way it looks is what makes it a good cutting agent.

Headlines across America almost every day are dealing with the rise of heroin usage and the criminal elements that have followed.  Here are a few:

April 18Heroin dealer gets 35 years in prison after three customers die

April 21Number of Heroin Deaths Soars in Md., Va.

It’s been a silent, slow and stealthy growth of illegal drug usage that is now becoming rampant in all states.  We hear of deaths and overdoses in the news, including the recent case of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman who, after struggling with addiction for years, died of a heroin overdose.  It should be a wake up call to what is rocking and resonating in our many small communities throughout America’s suburbia.  We’ve been hearing so much about marijuana legalization in various states that we may be losing sight of what is a killing field in the war against drugs.

As I was informed by Judge Joe Owen, who presides over the Town of Wallkill court in Orange County, “Crime has risen significantly due to heroin.”  This area is a small town in upstate New York about 80 miles from New York City.  Apparently the rise of criminal cases can be accounted for due to heroin.  People are stealing, prostituting, breaking in, anything they can do to get to the heroin, which is highly addicting and people are literally dying for it.

As a responsible parent, one tries to stay vigilant in protecting our little ones.  So when you have states legalizing drugs, you begin to wonder as you hear of so many drug deaths, are they going to legalize heroin and other drugs, too? This is frightening to me because it seems the government and media sweeps this under the rug more times then not to advocate what seems to be more popular, legal mass marijuana use.  I understand the war on drugs… I grew up in the midst of it.  What I didn’t understand was why does our government punish the user as harshly as the pusher?

Here are more headlines, including a few from small local towns and counties surrounding the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area:

April 22Local teens overdose on new LSD-type drug

Heroin deaths in Virginia spike in 2013:  (“Authorities say just this year, 18 people in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley have fatally overdosed on heroin. In Frederick County, Md., 14 people have overdosed; thirteen have overdosed in Montgomery County.”)

February 14, 2014Is heroin use in Fairfax County on the rise? 

January 31, 2014McLean High School student’s heroin overdose shows disturbing trend facing police:  (“James J. Hunt, acting special agent in charge with the Drug Enforcement Administration, said heroin was ‘pummeling the northeast, leaving addiction, overdoses and fear in its wake.’”)

The northeast United States is definitely more then feeling it as confirmed by Judge Joe Owen of Wallkill:

“As Judge of the sixth busiest town court in NYS, I can tell you that heroin is laying waste to our youth and devastating families.  I would estimate that over half the criminal cases I hear involve heroin or its related activities.  In the past four years, the amount of criminal cases I hear has more than doubled.  The reason is because of heroin.  People are committing crimes to fuel their addiction.  As a result, larcenies are way up, as are home invasions and robberies.  A jail sentence often does not seem to deter addicts from committing the same crimes again.”

How do you stop the war on drugs when States are legalizing once illegal drugs?  That is a question to be answered and until it is, how do we shelter and save our children?

Jin Ah Jin

Virginia PolitiChick Jin Ah Jin has been the lead in campaigns for many politicians, including Ken Cuccinelli for both State Senate and Attorney General and she was appointed the Honorary Chairman for the Fairfax County Asian American Coalition for the McCain/ Palin campaign. Jin also assists in local minority grassroots politics in her state of Virginia. She believes if we can elect and support good officials whose root is the care of their constituents, then we can change things. In her past, Jin worked as a volunteer fundraiser for Mercy Corps raising awareness and money for the health and poverty of women and children in North Korea. She was also a volunteer fundraiser for the Korean American Association of Greater Washington, D.C. area and led the Education Committee to teach English for newly arrived legal immigrants to the area. In conjunction, she worked with the office of former Congressman Thomas Davis, who took the lead on reforms in the welfare bill for legal immigrants. Jin was a former Vice President of Resources, board member and Fundraising Gala chair for the Korean American Coalition of Washington, D.C. in 2001. She was on the Scholarship Committee and the co-chair of the golf tournament fundraiser for the U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce 2003-2006. More importantly, Jin is the mother of 6 children. She says her passion for service is led through her children's eyes: "I want change for my children. I want them to have a future where their dreams can become reality and where they can succeed without prejudice."

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