"Not in my Neighborhood" Democrats in Balitmore need to Grow Up

So Baltimore City has some illegal zoning laws on the books, created to keep drug treatment centers out of residential areas. City folk who support the zoning laws say that the state regulations for these centers are lax and unenforced. O'Malley had the same complaint when he was Mayor, but surprise, he has yet to make any changes as Governor. So here we are, stuck in the shit.

City Councilcritters like MP Clarke (and her terrified Charles Village constituents) and Jack Young (hey Jack, I thought we were on the same side in this drug legislation game) are against fixing the zoning laws, willing to let the Feds take the City to court. Very "leaderly" of them. Following O'M's lead to be sure.

The fact is, these centers need to be built and expanded, and regulation needs to come later. Too bad that option leaves the political gears with no lubrication. Baltimore needs addiction solutions, and we need them now.

But what wonderful irony that Baltimore City is, in effect, zoned to ignore addiction.

HBO Continues to Impress

HBO will be hosting a new documentary series about addiction. I hope HBO approaches this topic with the same honesty they approached Hurricane Katrina along with Spike Lee, as well as the drug war in Baltimore on David Simon's The WIRE.

Its shows like The WIRE (which BET has thankfully purchased the rights to) and hopefully "Addiction" which will change American's perceptions about these issues.

For example, were you aware that 70% of addicts in America are in the workforce?