Tackle drug use and sales in our neighborhoods

I live in a city where one can grow to be anything that they choose to be. In my city, we have had people grow to be famous actors, athletes, musicians and so on. Even though the city I live in is a good place to grow, everyone has their own American dream. The Wellington Heights community is the place where one is most likely to find the most crime, which then leads to drugs and drug abuse.

After carefully examining the statistics within the community as a whole it is pretty easy to determine that majority of the crime is being done within the wellington heights community alone. This has been a growing problem for quite some time and will continue to be a problem until people start actually seeing it for what it truly is. In order for this problem to decrease one must try to pinpoint everyone that is involved with the drugs and the abuse of them. By knowing who the abusers are we have a better chance at helping the community by assisting them to become more aware of the threat that the abuse is causing.

A few factors that impact this issue is the fact that the wellington heights is home to low income housing, poverty, and the selling and purchasing of drugs of all sorts. Studies have shown that majority of today's drug abuse is done in these type of areas solely because of the high poverty rate that is maintained. The police try their best to control and regulate the distribution and use of illegal drugs, but it's just not enough. This issue seems to be a never ending cycle because of how easy it is to obtain almost any drug of your choice in the community.

By looking at the issue as a whole a few solutions come into play. In order to put an end to the abuse of the drugs primarily in this area everyone must play apart in promoting drug abuse awareness. By installing the harm that drug abuse can cause to one's family and the community itself it would help influence those who are drug abusers to want to change themselves. The tactic that I am speaking on is a door to door tactic. I believe if we paid more attention to the community and the things that are going on we would be more aware and would be able to help more than just the abusers who want help. It has been said that happiness is contagious and I believe it to be true just as well as success.

Drug abuse in this community is a problem because it not only affects the abuser, but it affects the children, the businesses and only leads to a higher incarceration rate. Drug abuse in the Wellington Heights neighborhood needs to be approached as a serious matter in order to end the cycle that our youth are becoming prone to.

' Zaya Daens is a 27-year-old proud father of three, and residential assistant for the Willis Dady Emergency Shelter in Cedar Rapids. Comments: info@zayadaens.com