Children kill children and innocents are downed by random gunfire from warring drug gangs. Elementary and high school students are required to pass through metal detectors in order to check for weapons, the deadly companions of the drug trade, and teachers are locked in classrooms for their own protection. City dwellers can no longer buy out of the mess. Individuals walking Wisconsin Avenue in Washington D.C.'s Georgetown, Madison Avenue in New York, Newbury Street in Boston and the Miracle Mile in Chicago are accosted by angry, aggressive panhandlers, many seeking money for their next fix. The ugly scrawls of graffiti on city buildings mark not only the arrival of spray paint, but also the widespread abuse of drugs and alcohol.
Substance abuse is an equal opportunity killer, snaring addicts in every social and economic class.
Office managers bolt computers to desks to prevent theft. Hospital emergency rooms are piled high with the debris of drug use on city streets. From Boston to Baton Rouge, hospitals teem with the victims of gunshot wounds and other violence caused by alcohol abusers, drug addicts and dealers, and of a variety of medical conditions, such as cancer, emphysema and cardiac arrest, caused by alcohol, tobacco, cocaine and other drugs. AIDS and tuberculosis spread rapidly and not just among intravenous drug users and crack addicts. Beyond sharing dirty needles and trading sex for drugs, individuals high on beer, other alcohol and pot are far more likely to have sex and to have it without a condom.