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Source: Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.迷你倉Sept. 07--SOUTH YARMOUTH -- Society is in denial about the damage caused by drugs and alcohol, Special Sheriff Jeffrey Perry told the Women's Republican Club of Cape Cod on Friday.In his job with the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office, Perry said he sees for himself the harm of substance abuse."The hardest thing I have to do is walk by a parent or grandparent that I know in the hallway who has a child or a grandchild incarcerated for addiction," said Perry, whose office is next to the waiting room of the Barnstable County Correctional Facility.He addressed about 30 members of the Republican club at the Riverway Lobster House about the drug problem on the Cape. He said 80 percent of his facility's inmates are incarcerated as a result of addiction. When the inmates' maximum sentences of 2 1/2 years are served, they return to the streets of the Cape."They get out and go back to our neighborhoods," he said. "It's your neighborhood and my neighborhood, not just some street in Hyannis."Perry's discussion focused on the issues of opiate addiction, which usually begins with prescription pills and turns to heroin abuse, and the recent legalization of marijuana for medical use, a development that Perry said sends the message that marijuana is safe and OK.But he also offered a note of hope. If society learns the lesson from the nation's successful campaign against cigarettes, the war on drugs could turn around, he said.For everything the police and the prison system do with education, treatment programs and job training, the real focus needs to be on the demand for drugs and alcohol, he said.With cigarettes, he said, society successfully tackled that demand by spending billions educating young people.And it worked, he said. The Falmouth Prevention Partnership, which has a federal grant to mobilize the community to address drug abuse, does annual surveys of Falmout儲存倉 students. The most recent results of this survey showed that about 20 percent of the town's 11th- and 12th-graders had smoked cigarettes in the previous month. That compared with more than 50 percent who had used alcohol and just under 50 percent who smoked marijuana, he said.The study also showed that more than 90 percent of students perceived a health risk from smoking. But for alcohol, the perception of risk went down to around 75 percent, and for marijuana, the perceived risk dropped to about 55 percent."The perception of our youth is that alcohol and marijuana are not as dangerous as cigarettes," Perry said. "We've done a great job with the cigarette campaign, but not with drugs and alcohol."We've spent practically zero educating against opiates," he said, yet that is the biggest drug and crime problem on the Cape.Recently a young man was sentenced to seven years in prison for robbing banks. While that wouldn't be classified as a drug crime, the police reports state that the man was robbing banks every few days to feed his heroin addiction, Perry said.Many of the inmates in jail lack high school diplomas, work experience or job skills, and suffer from debilitating addictions, he noted. The jail offers Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and other special programs focused on addiction, mental health and religious counseling, he said.These people get help in jail, he said.The police also work together on Cape Cod to keep the streets clear of drugs. But none of these efforts combat the desire to try drugs and alcohol in the first place, he said."Our community is in denial about what's going on," Perry said. "We're in denial about how it's impacting our youth, crime and our economy. We're losing that war on drugs."Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) Visit the Cape Cod Times (Hyannis, Mass.) at .capecodonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉價錢