This is the second part in our documentary, The Hidden Epidemic. You can hear the full documentary on Michigan Radio on Thursday, July 16th at 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. Part one is here.

On October 27th, 1986, President Reagan signed a new law to fight drug use in America. Buried within that law were new penalties for those convicted of selling drugs. The premise behind these penalties was to get the most serious drug offenders off the streets, and send a message that dealing drugs in America is a crime that does not pay.

Eugene Atkins never got that message.

“One thing about Gene, he always grew up a little faster than the rest of us,” says his friend Joseph Russau.

Russau grew up just around the corner from "Gene" Atkins, near the Eastown area of Grand Rapids.

This is the area teenagers from the suburb of Grandville started coming to in the fall of 2004 to get their heroin fix. Many of them arrived here already addicted, and for a few months until he was caught, Eugene Atkins was the dealer who helped them feed that addiction.

Russau says this was a tough place to grow up, but it was also tight knit.

“Everybody knew everybody, like Cheers man,” Russau says. “Everybody knew everybody's name and where they came from, and everybody knew everyone’s parents at that time.”

“Yeah, everyone was happy,” says Gene’s mom, Felicia Sims. “All the neighborhood kids, they seemed like they were brothers and sisters. They did everything together. They went to school together. On the weekends, they’d all be in the park early in the morning with their pajamas on, playing in the park.”

For the rest of this article by Dustin Dwyer see this Link:  http://stateofopportunity.mich...aler-got-locked-life