Everyone pays the toll taken by crack cocaine

Almost 20 years after the powerfully addictive drug crack cocaine arrived in Greensboro, it continues to destroy thousands of lives and cost the community tens of millions of dollars annuallyBut this devastating epidemic remains visible mainly to crack addicts and their families, residents of crack-infested neighborhoods and the law-enforcement officers and county workers who combat it. It has been "out of sight, out of mind" to most others, including, "unfortunately, most of those in control of policy," Greensboro Mayor Keith Holliday said. But crack is linked to:

• At least 70 percent of the homicides in Greensboro and High Point and most robberies, aggravated assaults and larcenies. More than 40 percent of the approximately 840 jail inmates in Greensboro and High Point are charged with crimes connected to their crack use, Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes estimated, and the county spends more than $7.2 million annually to house them. "That's about half my jail budget," Barnes said.
• HIV/AIDS and syphilis. Guilford County for years has had some of the nation's highest rates for these sexually transmitted diseases because of people who become prostitutes to pay for crack. [more]