System perpetuates drug addiction

Well, heroin use seems to be at an all-time high in these here suburbs.

This is a serious problem, and sadly, the system is not set up to help. Having been an addict myself for over 10 years, I have personally witnessed the backward way the system attempts to appear to be helping addicts when, in reality, it's far more likely to perpetuate the problem.

Do you really think it's appropriate to send people who got caught smoking pot to a facility populated with heroin and crack users?

I was forced into my first rehab by a combination of state and parental authority. While there, I heard all about all kinds of pharmaceuticals to get high on; I even left with a few phone numbers so I could try cocaine.

Do you really want to ship pot users off to live and learn with real drug addicts? A few years ago, I was convicted of yet another felony possession. By the "mercy" of the court I was sentenced to intensive drug probation. Sounds good right? Well maybe it would have been if I could have checked in out here at the Rolling Meadows courthouse, but do you know what they make heroin addicts like me do? Apparently there is only one probation building that offers intensive drug probation. Would you like to know where it is? Smack dab in the middle of Chicago's West Side ghetto.

I was actually trying to get clean at the time, but having to drive to the ghetto to see my probation officer really sabotaged my recovery. Who thought it was a good idea to force suburban heroin and crack addicts to drive through the very neighborhoods they used to buy drugs at to go to probation? Certainly not someone who wants them to recover.

Matthew Valles

Arlington Heights