To the Editor:

My wife and I came home to Washington for Memorial Day. We spent all weekend on the river; it was great to enjoy a few days in the natural beauty of our hometown.

Washington has always been an amazing place to live and has been billed as a great place to raise a family. Naturally, I was shocked and dismayed when I saw exactly how brazenly our local convenience stores are selling drug paraphernalia.

While waiting in line to buy my bags of ice, I noticed a small collection of steel wool pads for sale by the tobacco products. It seemed innocent enough at first but then I recalled any documentary on crystal meth and crack-cocaine use I’ve ever seen and it hit me. The scrubs can be used as makeshift filters. In my utter disbelief, I rather angrily interrogated the clerk. To her credit, she was just as upset as I was — then she showed me the little roses that are sold in glass tubes not five feet from the abrasive pads. In the same documentaries, the glass tubes are used as makeshift pipes. We shared a look that encompassed a multitude of emotions I can’t list here.

The recent banning of bath salts (an overdose of the ingredients Mephredrone and MDPV killed two NCSU students a year ago) was a good step toward making our hometown a safer place to live and work. I am not suggesting we ban steel wool or even plastic flowers. I am saying that any store owner caught selling tourniquets and spoons (commonly used in heroin use) or mirrors and razor blades (cocaine) in such close proximity would have some serious explaining to do. I have no illusions that we will ever completely eradicate illicit drugs from our lives but selling all the tools and pretending it’s nothing more than plastic flowers and cleaning supplies is disingenuous at best and — at least in my mind — should probably be criminal.

PATRICK W. LAWSON
Raleigh