If I were mayor of my town, Charleston, West Virginia, one of the first problems I would address is the drug addiction problem. To fix the problem, the first thing that I would need to do is find out why people become addicts. There are four major answers to that question. 

The first reason is having issues at home. This can mean a few things, being lack of family bond, poor parental supervision, or regular fights. This can lead someone to drugs as an outlet from their issues. The second reason to being a drug addict is having (a) mental disorder(s). The disorders that need stimulants to control, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, ADD, and ADHD. Using the stimulants that control these disorders can cause addiction to the medication. The third reason is using painkillers that have been prescribed by doctors, meant for a short amount of time. Sometimes, people get addicted to the prescriptions, and pretend to still be in pain to get more medication from the doctor. The last reason is peer pressure. Being around addicts, or those associated with addict can make drugs seem cool, causing people to try themselves, and potentially get addicted. 

Many people have many different ideas as to how to fix this issue. I came up with something that fits the town I live in. My mother works on an ambulance, and she knows what goes on the the main hospitals. She told me that Thomas Hospital was shutting down it’s very popular psychology ward. To fix the problem, it’s mandatory to either reopen it, or build a new one. After making sure that state paid health insurance is accepted, a detox program is going to need to be made within the psych ward. There also needs to be a rehab center either attached to or close by the psych ward. 

The next major step is to raise awareness and advertising. I could do this by creating billboards, posters, and signs to put in the West Side of town that talk about the bad parts of being an addict, and the good parts of being clean. The West Side of town is where all the bad drug neighborhoods are. The next thing to do would be to buy advertisements everywhere for the the detoxification program. Hopefully, by doing all this, the addicts will look for a new way of life being clean and use the program to get their lives back.