Here are three of the several letters received in response to Sunday's column about the death of the recovered heroin addict Darryl Logan -- two from people who have themselves been "in the life" and a third from the brother of an addict.

"The old adage, 'Once an addict, always an addict' is slowly slipping away from society.   I'm not ashamed to be a recovering addict who once roamed the streets of East Baltimore all hours of the night mired in the 'far below' subculture.  I once stood the corner of Harford Road & Northern Pkwy, homeless, hungry and destitute. . . . I, too, was tired of being hungry, tired of being cold, tired of being tired and high. . .  The sad truth is this: As addicts we cross the threshold at some point where we lose touch, where mothers, fathers and siblings have answered that call too many late lights, where friends have lent enough of their good fortune, money and clothes, and the point where our death seems an obscure blurb. Thank you for helping another one of us from beyond the gates of hell, thank you for shuttling the cause."
-- Ray Polen

"I know that the end was very sad but it is very encouraging to a drug addict to know that people actually can and do overcome drug addiction.  When addicts see people who go through the same things getting a job, a license, a place to live -- these are simple accomplishments to everyday people but to drug addicts they seem almost impossible to obtain.  The reason I know this is because I am an addict and I am in the process of getting my life together and sometimes all it takes is one small chance for someone to turn their life around.  Keep writing about successful recovery stories.  It gives hope to people like me -- a single mom, 33 years old who thought her life was over and would never have the chance again to raise and provide for her children.  Someone gave me that opportunity just like Darryl had for a job and that one chance helped me turn my life around.  Yes, I still struggle everyday but life is so much easier and brighter without drugs and this message needs to be delivered so much more than it is."
-- Nena

"Sunday's column reads like a recounting of my brother's life.  My brother's story has many parallels, except for Darryl's successes in struggling with addiction. Now 47, he has had mixed success fighting his chemical dependencies; many periods of remission, as a productive member of society, have been interlaced with periods of relapse.  He has received many "breaks" from people of good will, like you helped provide for Darryl.  He has been through so many recovery programs that he could recite their mantra in his sleep.  This is not to say that recovery programs are not needed.  On the contrary, I believe, as you do, that aggressive treatment is important.  I long ago stopped taking my brother's addiction personally and defy anyone to argue that drug use is a choice for addicts.  Mental illness can be the only explanation when an individual continues behavior that they know will damage them, cause them pain and ruin their lives.  Treatment programs work for some, but addiction is a life struggle; there are no silver bullets.  This is the story of my brother's life.
 
"I also read with great interest your Dec 2 column re Legalization and was worried where you were headed.  I too have used the money argument in discussing society's approach and, in general, support it.  It is a complex issue.  Society needs both proactive and reactive investment.  Education is the most powerful tool.  I am not talking about drug education, though that has its place.  We need to make broad-based education the most important and highest priority investment, as we are now growing the generation that has to solve many of society's problems.  We need to give our children the tools to do that and a understanding of their place in and responsibility to their community, both locally and globally.  Lacking a vision of a future of opportunity, and burdened by many years of starting from behind has produced urban generations that are most at risk.  If we make this investment, we will help provide a knowledge of self-worth and hopefulness in our young people that will push chemical dependency further toward the periphery.  There will still be those that will fall.  In legalizing drugs, we will be making a choice that we will be "writing off" some of these people (including my brother).  I was glad that your Dec 2 column ended with a similar thought.
 
"Thinking back to the 'Freedom from Chemical Dependency' parents night in November, I was struck by several things: students have much they are willing to discuss; parents don't listen well enough even after the exhortations of the program leaders to do so; those parents who felt they had to preach, talked mainly to their fear of immediate tragedy (e.g., fatal car crashes) rather than life impacts (emphasis was on parent's fear rather than student's fear/pressures/issues); and most startling is that, to the very intelligent students to whom I listened, the dangers seemed distant and vague.  I think the parents need to be given the week-long program.  The students possess plenty of knowledge and not enough understanding.  How does one make perceptions of the dangers real and immediate?  I fear that most -- or at least many -- schools do not or can not.  Our path to educating our way out of epidemic drug abuse in our cities will be a long one and, though in the long run, legalization may aid the journey, many will fall victim in the process."

-- John