Dear Editor,
My wife and I purchased a home in Burlington to be near family who live here. I thank Charlie Smith for his insightful, balanced observations in a recent commentary published by VTDigger. As a sober alcoholic and former drug abuser, I can attest to the fact that some Burlington public officials are only facilitating the living nightmare that too many areas of the city have become.
As a practicing lawyer, I know firsthand that drug dealing is organized crime run by career criminals who cannot be sweet-talked or social-worked. Re-funding the police and supporting them with vigorous prosecution are essential to combat such organized crime.
Drug addicts frequently steal and may commit violent acts to feed the compulsion that afflicts them. Clean needles do not help them get clean and sober. I got clean and sober only when — to paraphrase the first of Alcoholics Anonymous’s 12 steps — I hit bottom and was forced to admit I was powerless over drugs and alcohol and that my life had become unmanageable.
Although I was lucky enough to reach that point while I still had a home and family, I have personally known many fellow addicts for whom that required incarceration.
Michael Pill
Burlington, Vt.
