Troubled Teens Resources

Give a drug dealer training and a job. A novel approach and what could be a positive intervention against the flow of illegal drugs. Corner drug dealers are a common sight in almost any urban neighborhood. The tragic consequences of the constant drug trade usually become the daily headlines in local newspapers as shootings and gang war become regular reports. Providence, R.I. is employing a unique program to change that.

“The police start by going after the street-level drug dealers and their hierarchy in the worst drug-plagued area, or “beachhead.” The next step is unusual: The police select a few nonviolent offenders, the dealers who are young and have the potential to be rehabilitated. Instead of arresting them, the police give the dealers a second chance and turn them over to the community groups, such as the Urban League, which provide jobs, education and counseling.

The approach encourages the community to trust the police, Kennedy said, which leads residents to work with the police to prevent more drug dealers from returning. The dealers with a second chance serve as an example to the younger generation.
[…]
“We were open to it because we were tired of being a narcotics-arresting machine,” said Esserman, who knew Kennedy from when the professor was at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “And there’s something compelling about a second chance.” The Urban League of Rhode Island was eager to try it. “It seemed like an opportunity to transform the neighborhood,” said Luis Aponte, an administrator at the Urban League and a Providence city councilman. “The conditions were also ripe. We had the presence of a police chief who demonstrated the willingness to work with the community, and the Urban League was often called in to be a conduit between the Police Department and the community.”
(Source)

Intervention in the current teenage drug crisis engulfing small towns and cities alike has to deal with this fundamental linchpin of drug culture; the money. The sheer economics of dealing are difficult to defeat. It is so very hard to lure a teenager with a fast food job when the big money and the ’street creds’ are found dealing dope. But train an enterprising mind in a field that they have an interest in, apprentice those willing to work, and you can start making street corner bling look shabby.