It Seems To Fall On Deaf Ears

On May 12th I stood in front of the Mayor of Martinsburg and the City Council (those few that attended the meeting) and read our petition to them. I also told them on that day that this reaches into our schools here. In light of the recent OD's and the two deaths of the young Spring Mills High School Graduates and students I wonder if my words fell on deaf ears that day? Did they not believe me that this has already reached into the school system here in Martinsburg and Berkeley County?

I have no clue what more it is going to take for our leaders to wisen up to this problem here. How many more will need to die while our leaders set idly by?

It is really amazing the struggle in getting people just to sign the petition. People know what the problem is, they will even say what the problem is yet won't sign the petition to get the progress started. I don't understand.

I heard about the petition started for the gorilla at the zoo and they said it has over 25,000 signatures. I wonder where do the real priorities lie. Yes it was horrible what happened to the gorilla but the heroin epidemic affects human lives. I know since the gorilla incident our numbers of overdoses have not decreased. Our numbers of OD deaths have not decreased.

Maybe some of you may not be aware of this but that building we stood in front of on April 24th was already purchased by the county last year and was purchased for the purpose of becoming a treatment center.

After the purchase then the fight started over zoning and money and meanwhile the heroin epidemic has continued to grow. People haven't stopped OD'ing and dying just because the plans were announced. Treating the addiction and this treatment center is the very first step in recovery and yet here we still stand.

I do wonder sometimes that if that building would have been purchased to be another pole dancing stripper club in this town they'd have no problems opening another one of those types of clubs up yet they continue to wonder about what happened to families and the family unit here in Berkeley County. It's because they have no clue where their true priorities really lie.

To those against this treatment center I ask,

What is going to be the consequence of not having this treatment center where it was proposed? And what will be the consequence of the same old do nothing approach? If you had a disease and were sick and could possibly die from the disease would you want a bunch of people against where you could go to be treated for your disease?

Addiction and heroin abuse, is an equal opportunity disease affecting all socioeconomic standards and knows no boundaries. This is not a problem of the welfare state or the poor or less fortunate. What do people think will happen if we continue with the same do nothing approach as has been taken in 16 plus years?

Many thanks to those who have and continue to support this effort.