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Crack Cocaine (image source: DEA)

Addiction develops much more rapidly with cocaine than alcohol, often within a few weeks or months, and especially when smoked as freebase (crack). Thus, the dynamics of cocaine addiction are different from those of alcoholism, including its impact on the individual and the family. Cocaine addiction can be likened to a rapid-onset trauma that stuns its victims, compared with alcoholism, which progressively and insidiously debilitates the drinker over a much longer period. The cocaine-affected family is less likely to show the deeply ingrained systemic aberrations and codependent relationships so commonly seen in alcoholic families.

~ from “Outpatient Treatment of Cocaine and Crack Addiction: A Clinical Perspective,” by Arnold M. Washton and Nannatte Stone-Washton (PDF)

Read more on Bottle vs. rock = Slide vs. slam…

Good editorial in today’s News & Record: “Clearing out The Block”:

Greensboro police last week stepped up loitering enforcement and effectively cleared the place known as “The Block.” Just like that.

Read more on N&R Editorial: Clearing out The Block…

The News & Record and WFMY report that the owner of the University Mart in Greensboro has been charged with food stamp fraud. He’s accused of making purchases at local grocery stores with food stamps that weren’t assigned to him. The University Mart is on Warren Street, near the intersection with Spring Garden.

Read more on Finally! A Greensboro store owner gets charged with food stamp fraud…

Did you read News & Record editorial page editor Allen Johnson’s Sunday, October 4, 2009 column? Read it online: My conflicted views about panhandlers.

Allen writes in response to the heavily restrictive changes to the city’s panhandling ordinance, which have made it illegal to panhandle almost everywhere downtown, and have limited panhandling throughout the city. Allen talks about why he has mixed feelings about panhandlers.

Read more on Allen Johnson: Conflicted about panhandlers…

Be sure to read Lorraine Ahearn’s News & Record article, “Benches highlight a bigger problem”, which begins like this:

“The location of artistic benches, which were removed from the Downtown Greenway on Friday after neighbors complained, looked good on paper but ignored some basic urban topography. Just a stone’s throw from where the benches were removed, amid complaints that they drew drunken and lewd behavior, sits ‘The Block.’ At the southwest corner of Eugene and Lee streets, at the entrance to HealthServe clinic and Greensboro Urban Ministry’s night shelter, this stretch of sidewalk has been a magnet for loitering, drugs and prostitution for 20 years….”

The benches were never the problem, so removing them won’t solve it. The problem on the block is primarily addiction. People drink there, and buy and smoke pot and crack. And where you find crack, you find dealers and prostitutes.

Read more on Bilbro benches gone, next target: homeless on the block?…

The Greensboro City Council has adopted changes in the City ordinance governing begging and panhandling. Sec. 20-69 will be amended as follows:

Sec. 20-69: Place
Any person who begs or solicits alms for his or her personal gain when the person is in any of the places listed below is guilty of a misdemeanor:
(1) At any bus or train stop;
(2) In any public transportation vehicle, facility, transit stop or taxi stand;
(3) In any vehicle on the street; or
(4) On private property, unless the person has written permission from the owner of the property to beg or solicit alms on the property; or
(5) On any school property during the student arrival times or during the student departure times.
(6) On any sidewalk adjacent to a motion picture theater, outdoor theater or palladium, any valid licensed vendor location, or where a line of patrons has formed.
(7) Within 20 feet of the entrance to any financial institution or automated teller machine, regardless of whether or not such automated teller machine is located at or near a financial institution. Financial institution as used in this section means any bank, trust company, savings and loan association, credit union, check-cashing business, any other entity principally engaged in the business of lending or receiving or soliciting money on deposit; or
(8) Within 20 feet of the entrance to any commercial establishment or private residence, or
(9) In any parking, deck, garage or surface parking lot and not within 20 feet of the entrance and exits of these areas and not within 20 feet of any parking meter or parking kiosk, or
(10) While under the influence of alcohol or other non-prescribed drugs or illegal substance, or
(11) Within 20 feet of the visible barricade of any outdoor café whether such café is on the public sidewalk or on private property.

The amended ordinance became effective upon adoption.

Read more on What the amendment to the panhandling ordinance says…

Image credit: Nelson Kepley, N&R

UPDATE:  The amendments to the panhandling ordinance passed unanimously.

Tonight, the Greensboro City Council considers significant revisions to the ordinance governing public soliciting, begging and panhandling.  The proposed changes would result in a de facto ban on panhandling in the downtown area, and would strictly limit panhandling throughout the rest of the city.

Read more on N&R: Proposal would just about ban panhandling…

image credit: Steve Wampler

There’s a phrase I hear a lot when people talk to addicts and alcoholics in recovery: “You have to change your playground.” That means leaving behind the people and the places associated with your drinking and drugging. Makes sense. But until I saw it happening to friends, I didn’t realize that leaving the playground is about more than being tempted by your old life — it’s about getting away from people who are still in active addiction and who try to get you back there, too.

Read more on Misery loves company: Addiction recovery and moving on…

“Taser the homeless.”

Word is spreading about that disturbing suggestion, which came from an unidentified woman who owns or works for a business on South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro.  She attended a problem-solving meeting on May 18th with District 3 Council rep Zack Matheny and City staff, to discuss parking-related issues in the 300 block of South Elm Street.

Read more on So you heard about the chick who wants to taser the homeless downtown?…

Losing someone I love to addiction. Powerless to stop it. Feeling helpless, heartbroken, lonely and lost. I hate addiction. Help me, LORD.