Dear Mayor,
Please allow me to further explore on the gravity of the illegal drugs and how they are affecting the community of Downtown Los Angeles, and to also recommend four solutions for preventing illegal drugs in this community. First, the number of illegal drug dealers is greater than ever and this aspect increases the chances of tempting new people to become consumers. The growing number of the illegal drug consumers implies higher risk for more members of the community to abuse them and to become dependent. Likewise, as the illegal drug dealers are spread all over the town, this increases the likelihood that they allure high school students, raising the consumption of illegal drugs among teenagers. As a consequence, many students might register poor performances, while the absenteeism rate will grow and even the dropping out of school will enhance, lowering teenagers’ chances to develop into responsible adults and upright members of our community, as they will also face police arrests. In addition, drug abuse often leads to overdose, which usually means death, hence the illegal drug use also implies an increased rate of suicides and death among consumer (“Drug Overdose Deaths” 1). The future of these youngsters’ and in general of other drug users from Downtown L.A. is in our hands and I am asking for your involvement to take measures into preventing illegal drug consumption. With more community members falling prey to illegal drugs, the entire Downtown Los Angeles will suffer, as it will become weaker, impeding the chances of the youngsters to have a clean and bright future, hence hindering the sustainable development of the city.
As I mentioned, there is an increasing number of drug abusers and this challenges the work of the specialists in the currently existent rehabilitation centers. In this respect, I would like to recommend building and consolidating more treatment facilities, for providing the proper care to drug abusers that require specialized and professional assistance for supporting them in their struggle to resist relapsing to illegal drug use and abuse. The rehabilitation programs are intense and require full commitment of both the patients and the health care professionals. As such, patients’ rehabilitation implies medical treatment and requires intensive therapy (usually estimated at three hours per day), (“Inpatient Rehabilitation Therapy Services” 2) plus the patients’ ongoing supervision by involving them in other activities and programs in order to keep their mind busy from thinking of drug use, such as group activities or physical exercises (“Overcoming Drug Addiction”). This requires the active involvement of health care professional in the sustainable recovery of the drug abusers and the current existent treatment centers are insufficient for dealing with the increasing number of illegal drug users. Having more professionals for supporting the treatment of the drug users implies according each patient more time and commitment to getting them back on their feet. Creating new treatment centers is a required condition for covering all the areas of the Downtown Los Angeles community, so that these centers to be in the proximity of the people who need professional help in recovering from drug use. This solution would contribute to minimizing the number of the existent illegal drug users, and to discouraging the drug dealing in our community, as the number of their clients will diminish.
Related to maintaining the sustainability of the drug treatment programs, I am also recommending as a solution for fixing the problem raised by illegal drugs the monitoring of the individuals who have a drug use history and to assess their likability to relapse, by applying in-depth assessment of their current environment. This program would require an investment in social care assistants who would need to perform occasional checks on individuals who have an illegal drug use history. The social care assistants would need to investigate how former drug users spend their time, with what people, in what environments (bars, parks, home, etc.) and to assess their behavior and their likelihood to returning to drug use, based on their actions, on the people whom they meet and spend time with. If the evaluations indicate that these individuals are likely to return to drug use, they should be put back into rehabilitation treatment and they should be offered ongoing support to overcome such situation. Involving them in community activities, such as involving in the organization of community fairs and events would be beneficial for them and for the city as well.
Another solution that I would like to bring to your attention is to increase the severity of the punishment for individuals caught doing drugs. I recommend this action thinking that this would contribute to a reduction of drug users, when considering the consequences they might face. In addition, increasing the time spent in prison for the people caught doing drugs implies keeping them away from their dealers and implicitly away from drugs for a longer period and this solution can actually determine the illegal drug consumers to become accustomed to resist the need to consume drugs. Moreover, promoting the increased severity of the punishment for drug users would generate awareness among Los Angeles residents upon what illegal drug consumers would have to face for doing drugs and this measure would determine individuals that considered turning to drugs to reconsider the idea, knowing the severity of the punishment they would expose themselves to.
A significant solution for diminishing the illegal drug use and its effect upon our community would be to approach this problem from its roots. As such, illegal drug dealers often tempt teenagers, who later become their frequent clients (Mark & Moore 9). In this sense, I am suggesting that your administration should get involved in developing a strong community and educational program, by raising awareness of this problem in Downtown Los Angeles schools. School students are the targets of the drug dealers and for turning them away from ever thinking on taking this road, we need to make them aware of how illegal drug consumption might affect them. The awareness program should point out the negative effects of illegal drugs and it should educate children and teenagers on how to say no to drugs. Supporting the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E, dare.org) program in schools, and constantly repeating the messages of this program throughout every grade would create an effective solution for controlling the problem raised by illegal drugs. At this point, the awareness program that I am proposing should take into consideration the various developmental stages of school children and teenagers (Rathus 11) and adapt the content of the educational awareness campaign on each age group.
These are the solutions that I propose for preventing illegal drugs in Downtown Los Angeles and I trust that you would see their relevance, their effectiveness and sustainability, so that to develop them into consolidated programs, supported by financial investment, but also by a professional and experienced approach, working closely with the dedicated departments for assuring the efficiency of the recommended solutions.
Sincerely,
Don Waters
Works Cited
D.A.R.E. Drug Abuse Resistance Education Official Website. Accessed 29 October, retrieved from http://www.dare.org/. n.d. Web
“Drug Overdose Deaths – Florida 2003-2009”. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 60, no. 26. 2011. Print.
Inpatient Rehabilitation Therapy Services: Complying with Documentation Requirements. Department of Health and Human Services. 2012. Print.
Moore, Mark, H. & Kleiman, Mark, A.R. “The Police and Drugs” U.S. Department of Justice. No. 11. 1989. Print.
Rathus, Spencer, A. Childhood and Adolescence Voyages in Development. Belmont. Wadswort, Cengage Learning. 2011. Print.
Overcoming Drug Abuse. HelpGuide. Accessed 29 October 2012, retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/drug_abuse_addiction_rehab_treatment.htm. N.d. Web.
