When we think of "The Alcoholic," our mind's eye conjures up images of some unshaven derelict, staggering down the street in a tattered raincoat with a bottle in a paper bag. When we imagine "The Druggie," it's usually some walking corpse with track marks all over the place.
The bogeyman. Zombies.
In truth, it's me. It's Garrett Reid. It might even be you. But the stigma associated with this disease is still so strong that people are terrified of voluntary rehab centers, especially located near a high school or park.
Now I don't know what the hell an alkie or druggie is supposed to do to a high school kid. Eat his brains? Bethlehem residents, most of them very bright, were scared to death of Abe Atiyeh's proposed treatment center at Center and Dewberry.
I know their fear was very real, but it was also very irrational. And now they're carousing with a bunch of drunks and druggies at Musikfest, the very people who might have been helped by a Malvern in the Lehigh Valley. They certainly aren't helped in prison. Garret Reid could tell you that.
If he were alive.
