Dear Star-Ledger, the street name is "purple drank"

The Star-Ledger did a boffo story today on the well organized roaches selling drugs out in Newark. Branford Place between Halsey and Broad streets has become the new home to drug dealers chased off by the no drug zone almost across the street from where they used to set up shop. The drug boys actually walk up to those leaving the medical clinic on the block trying to buy up pain meds and grape flavored codeine cough syrup from which they quickly divy up the six ounce bottle into one ounce shots and sell it for $10. The street name of this abomination is "purple drank." (Johnny never ceases to amaze does he?)

Local businesses are not at all happy that the drug boys have set up shop now on their block. Police come by, the roaches scatter and police leave and the roaches come back. The central focus of many business owners is on the medical clinic. The owner of the clinic doesn't feel the blame is his:

Michael Lipkin, says it’s irresponsible to blame him when drugs have been a fabric of the street for years. He says he has armed security to stop drug dealers from coming up into the clinic. His staff, he says, has told patients not to sell their prescriptions. "Hundreds of time, I tell them," he said. "What can I do. I can’t follow them around."

So what to do? There has already been a wild-west type daytime shootout on the block so you know these drug boys aren't scared off easily. We here would say it's just Newark being Newark but as long at Greenville is a part of Jersey City that'd just be wrong.

Johnny's just a common man but he'd suggest expanding this drug free zone past the Prudential Center by a few blocks, it seems to be the only thing the roaches are afraid of.