Thanks so much for the Drug War report. The portion on how long people have to pay for their pasts hit particularly close to home for me. Fifteen years ago I reached a point in my addiction where I was sleeping in an abandoned church and begging for quarters. The winter mornings brought the rains and I would lay there and just cry, sick and withdrawing from heroin. After a while it would set in that I was just going to get sicker if I didn't get up and get begging...a very hopeless existence. Ultimately I got clean and got a job, put myself through school while working full time, earning a Bachelors and Master's in Spanish (Linguistics) and then two more years to get an ESL certificate. The State Of California also gave me a substitute teaching credential, despite six arrests for under the influence (walking down the street) and two minor possessions (all later expunged). Two weeks ago a principal for a high school district offered me a job teaching ESL to GED students who are going to take the exam is Spanish. She knew about my past and was fine with it. It looked like my teaching career was finally going to take off. Yesterday, fifteen years clean, the Human Resource people pointed out that hiring me would be very difficult due to my past and that they would send me a letter of their final decision. I thanked them and walked away with a heavy heart; it's not always easy walking through the disappointments and batterings we take over pasts we can't change but there is a real dignity in walking through it all clean and looking for the lessons. Thanks so much for addressing all the points in the report.
B.T.