When residents of New York City's Red Hook neighborhood realized they needed a new weapon to deal with the rampant drug use, gang violence and prostitution in their community, they came up with the idea of a justice center that would hold offenders close to home and connect them with services to help them.

Despite a fierce drumbeat of crime, residents of that Brooklyn community struggled for eight years to get their drug court up and running.

 

In Howard County, some community leaders point to the extended effort in Red Hook when asked why it is taking so long to take steps to attack a serious drug problem here. Six months after completion of a comprehensive assessment of Howard's drug troubles, the county is at least two years away from having any new ways of dealing with drug abusers.

In Howard, where the streets are more likely to teem with SUVs than with street gangs, challenges such as drug use are harder to see, they say.

"I believe there's still such denial in Howard County as to what problems we have," said State's Attorney Marna L. McLendon. "I think a lot of people in Howard County, when asked, will say no - don't spend more money on drug treatment."

This week, McLendon and 12 others from Howard took tours of drug courts in New York, and paid close attention to the methods communities such as Red Hook developed to deal with their drug problems. The field trip, funded by a grant to the Howard state's attorney's office from the Columbia-based Horizon Foundation, is part of a painstaking process of deciding whether Howard County needs a drug court, and if so, how it might work.

"Howard County needs a drug court," said McLendon, who with her committee plans to tour other drug courts in Maryland over the next three months. "We need to be more discreet in how we look at offenders, assess addiction and look at the best way to provide a successful outcome for the offender and the community. If the crimes that person is committing are drug or alcohol-driven, how do we best intervene?"

The $28,000 Horizon grant stems from a recommendation included in a report produced by the Delta Project, a yearlong study of Howard County's drug problem by citizens, political leaders and health care professionals.

Horizon has provided unspecified additional funding to help determine what types of drug treatment programs or centers Howard County may need. Horizon President Richard M. Krieg said a Bethesda-based research firm called Developmental Services Group is using that money to study Howard's methods of drug treatment.

"A central intake point does not exist for treatment," said Krieg, who called the current study period a good start toward helping substance abusers. "Howard County lacks sufficient residential treatment, and what's more, there's no provision for continuity of care."

This is old news to Ralph Massella, who called attention to the rising substance abuse problem in Howard by going public with the story of his son, Damien, who died of a heroin overdose in 1998. Since Damien's death,

Massella, his wife, and his daughter have urged parents to recognize signs of addiction in their children, and raised more than $37,000 in their yearly "Damien's Run for Recovery."

"It's unfortunate that it takes so long for such an important problem to really be addressed," said Massella, one of the 75 committee members who served on the Delta Project.

"I don't know why Howard County has been behind other counties, but I can say that the county's come a long way. The biggest thing the county's done was to really get the thinking process changed in a lot of people, so that the issue of drug use has become more palatable," Massella said.

Krieg said he believes some people are still in denial about drug problems in Howard, but he also feels public awareness has been mounting slowly.

"Its funny, because as soon as communities started waking up about the problems in Howard County, they started saying, 'What are you going to do about it?'" Krieg said. "It's very easy to say, 'We need it.' But when people sit down to do it, a lot of planning has to be done so we do it right."