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Cqlls for Juvenile home conversion for drug, medical treatment

Letter to the Editor:

Tama County has the need for a new county poor farm – and the former Stare Juvenile home campus if the perfect candidate. Tama County had a poor farm for decades, and the most recent facility was closed only fairly recently.

The current generation of young Americans will live statistically shorter lives than their parents for the first time in history. The reason is drugs, primarily meth and opiods.

Toledo Iowa’s very own meth dealer has been operating fairly openly – and profitably, for the last seven years.

By offering meth as an “energy boost,” young people on the south Tama county region have been tricked into trying meth – and are instantly trapped as addicts. Since these victims can no longer pass job application drug screening, many leave town as day workers and are sporadically homeless. Their primary focus is to obtain more meth.

We need to reclaim these lives by using a beautiful facility that is already built.

The medical ward could be used in drug treatment efforts and the school classrooms could be used for DMACC, MCC and Kirkwood visiting instructors to teach adult education classes, vocational skills from everything from computer skills to small engine repair and welding. All citizens could make use of these classes.

This could also be a regional mental health facility or even a hospital.

Let’s not lose this gem of a facility.

Citizen taxpayer

John Maplethorpe

Toledo