Editor’s note: Dear Attorney General Kane. Please zero in on Pottstown (18 miles from Reading). It is overrun with drug dealers, Section 8 slumlords and has a very high crime rate. The police force is overwhelmed.
Reading is one of the portals through which much of Pennsylvania is receiving illegal drugs, and state Attorney General Kathleen Kane has proposed a plan that she says could help stanch the flow.
“The major source of supply into Harrisburg and Lancaster and York is coming from Reading,” Kane said during an interview with the Reading Eagle at her office in Harrisburg.
Nearing the midway point of her first year in elective office, she said she viewed illegal drugs as the top issue for her in Berks County. Other pressing issues include child sex predators and consumer protection. Kane previously worked as a Lackawanna County prosecutor and as an attorney.
Supplies of crack, PCP, heroin or marijuana come to Reading from places such as Arizona, Illinois and New York, with the original major source being Mexico, Kane said. In Reading, the drugs are repackaged into street-sale quantities and sent out to other parts of Pennsylvania.