‘Crazy plan’ would swap diamonds for crack
By Mark Hofmann
DAILY COURIER
Sunday, February 4, 2007
To help raise awareness about — and possibly help to cure — the drug problem in Fayette County and beyond, two local men want to bring together instant-cash businesses and police departments for the Diamonds for Crack program.
Dale Baird, the owner of Cash King in Connellsville, and John Wingert, a former police officer and creator of The Wingert Group, said they want to help get crack off the streets and bring addicts one step closer to getting the help they need.
They will do so by trading drugs for diamonds.
“It sounds mildly crazy — it just may be totally insane — but it may be the only thing that works,” Baird said. “Because sometimes you need a crazy plan to tackle a criminally insane problem.”
nspired by a popular gun buyback program in which criminals turn in guns for cash or gifts, the Diamonds for Crack program asks crack addicts to bring the drug into a local police station on a designated day and trade it for a genuine diamond.
Police departments will get the diamonds from instant cash businesses or pawn shops.
Baird, for instance, gives away as many as a dozen diamonds every week as tips to waitresses, gifts to his customers and even presents to complete strangers.
“It’s all in how you buy gold, and what you do with the scrap when you are finished,” Baird said. “I grew tired of reselling diamonds, so I started giving them away as bonuses, tips and free gifts.”
Wingert said an important element to the program is raising the public’s awareness of the drug abuse problem.
“Nobody wants to see how bad the heroin and crack use is in this tiny little country community in rural Pennsylvania,” Wingert said. “Kids aren’t starting with soft drugs or alcohol anymore. They are using Oxycontin, Ecstasy or meth. Teenage girls are starting where the road ends, and no one wants to talk about it.”
Both Baird and Wingert said they’re considering having a treatment professional on hand during the day of the program, either to talk to the addicts or to hand them pamphlets or other information when they receive their diamonds.
To help spread the word, today Baird and Wingert are launching a campaign aimed at police departments, pawn shops and other high-end retail shops.
Wingert, whose personal and corporate consulting business has him traveling across the country, also plans to share the information with friends and former coworkers who are still in law enforcement.
“The community support and free publicity that the local pawn shops gain from supporting the program is well worth the couple of hundred diamonds that they can give away in an afternoon,” Baird said.
For more information on the program, visit www.diamonds4crack.com.