The scourge of drugs
Young tearaway James Edward Pugh was up for a drugs offence. Stopped in the early hours of the morning in a car that meandered hopelessly across the highway, he found the arrest all very funny. That was down to the drugs he’d taken but the quantity and variety found in his glove compartment suggested they weren’t all for his personal consumption. Without enough space in their gaols to hold him, or enough resources to seriously question him and get valuable info about who he was working for, there was little could be done but send him away to rehab. Ninety days of soft treatment and he’d be back on the streets. The system was failing…
For Bell there was neither justice nor hope for the future. Somehow all these kids were getting access to pills. That’s what had to be targeted. That, and a major education programme at the local high schools. In the end, though, a teenage daughter holds the key to what has happened.
What exactly was Carla wanting to get away from when she decided to leave Ackers Gap and live with her father? How long can Bell keep punching away at the drugs issue before she loses support from her colleagues or, worse still, pushes those involved to extreme measures? And are there things more disruptive to the gentle harmony of family life in an Appalachian town than murder?