The document discusses Hartford, Connecticut's serious drug problem and its causes. It states that over 50% of the city has daily drug deals and users regularly approach the author to buy or sell drugs. This is due to a lack of adequate employment opportunities, as the city has almost no jobs for those without a college degree. As a result, many residents turn to drugs and crime out of desperation and poverty. To truly address the problem, the city needs to work to attract businesses that provide jobs suitable for those with criminal records or less education.

1. DRUGS: The Destroyer of Lives
A True Life Story by: Matthew Cryan
Let’s face it. Hartford has a serious drug problem. It’s getting increasingly worse as time goes
on, and it’s causing damage to the economy, standard of living, and is the root cause of crime
and homelessness. However, it is my personal opinion mixed with basic facts that the poverty
and drug epidemic is directly related to the unemployment levels in and around the Hartford
area.
Hartford, is not a large city. In fact, it’s incredibly small compared to most. Having said that,
how is it possible that such large swaths of the city are known drug infested areas? Almost
every part of Hartford’s suburbs has a large chunk that are high drug traffic areas. Not to
mention that many of the so called “legitimate businesses” in these areas cater to the many
needs of drug addicts and their dealers. Well over 50% of the entire city is considered by the
authorities to have active drug deals being transacted on a daily basis. I personally cannot walk
through areas of Capital and Wethersfield Avenues, Park Street,, and almost the entire North
End without being asked many times if I’m “straight”, meaning do I want to buy drugs or not.
The same goes for the people who are looking for drugs consistently coming up to me to try
and sell me a multitude of goods. Last night around ten p.m. at night as I’m leaving a Dunkin
Donuts I was approached by a person I know who uses Heroin and Crack cocaine, attempting to
sell me a used pair of sneakers for seven bucks, which is enough to purchase a bag of Heroin. I
have on numerous occasions brought friends who are new to Hartford, or people looking to
rent an apartment all around and pointed out the bad areas, effectively cutting the available
areas to rent from down to about %30 of Hartford. When people downtown staying at the
hotels ask me for directions, I have to add warnings to them not to stray within a few certain
blocks because rough areas are literally a few hundred feet from Downtown!!
Hartford has almost no jobs for those that are young or old, or more specifically, lack a college
education. Downtown is geared entirely towards those with higher educations in finance,
brokerage, or management. The vast majority of small businesses in Hartford suburbs are small
two person run Bodegas, or family only run shops, which even if they did hire others would only
hire those of a specific ethnicity depending on the area of Hartford they are in. Hartford is very
racially segregated. There are very few plazas or stores that employ more than a handful of
people and the surrounding areas like the malls of West Hartford, Farmington, and Manchester,
almost exclusively employ teenagers or young adults who are willing to work part time, receive
low wages, and no benefits. These jobs are made for people who live with family or don’t have
bills. They are unacceptable for those who need to pay rent or other expenses or for those who
have kids.

2. This severe lack of appropriate employment opportunities causes many to lose hope and many
ultimately turn to drugs and alcohol to escape the reality of their situation. This is a never
ending cycle that leads to increasing poverty and homelessness. Not to mention the crimes that
happen as a direct result of people needing money to purchase drugs. People are being mugged
in Bushnell Park for their wallets and purses. Cars by the hundreds are being broken into
because people leave their laptops, cellphones, and GPS’s, and yes, even items as small as
sunglasses, change, and CD’s. As I mentioned earlier, hundreds of stores and bodegas actually
have separate tills or boxes of cash that they set aside separate from their regular tills which is
solely used to purchase goods brought in by customers off the streets regardless if their stolen
items or not. And many other businesses then take those items off these stores and unlock
them for a fee. So to all those that think their electronics are safe because they have passwords
or biometric scanners on them, well, they are not. I could walk into any of thirty stores I know
personally and purchase a Galaxy S6 phone for under a hundred bucks that the night before
was sitting in someone’s car, password protected, and even had GPS on it.
This is how bad the drug and crime rate has gotten. To the point where businesses consider it a
run of the mill transaction on a daily basis to purchase “hot” items off the street, including Pills
such as Oxi’s and Perc’s.
The end result is that the City of Hartford desperately needs to do something about adding
large quantities of businesses that people with lower educations can obtain, and that also hire
people with records. This is the only way to lessen the amount of those who are poverty
stricken or homeless. This would also significantly lower the costs of all the programs out there
that give people job training and education, which to me, is entirely pointless considering the
lack of employment opportunities in ANY field in Hartford. Add to that the defrayed costs of
shelters, food programs, food stamps, Cash assistance, Drug and alcohol treatment facilities,
and any number of other programs that drain the state and federal treasury, and we have a
truly noble goal to strive towards.
My goal here is not to insult or demean those with drug and alcohol dependency problems. It is
a sickness that needs treatment and kindness, despite the negative actions those commit in the
name of getting money to purchase them. My intention is to educate and make aware those
who are in power that the situation is completely out of their control. No amount of policing or
raids will end or even lessen the problem. Other actions need to be taken that will enable those
less fortunate to have hope and want to live a normal life instead of drowning in a bottle or
leaving reality behind in the smoke of a pipe. This city is dying even with all the superficial
renovations and upgrades that have been done to make those living in the downtown area feel
like they aren’t part of the outlying problems. No amount of extra sidewalks or statue cleansing
is going to fix the lack of jobs and crappy apartment complexes that surround downtown on all
sides, and make those living there feel hopeless.