PEABODY – Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey said Thursday that America has the best education system, the best health care system and that “the country’s in tremendous shape” – except for one thing.”If you see something you don’t like in America, the reason behind it is abuse of alcohol and drugs,” McCaffrey said.McCaffrey retired as a four-star general in 1996 after 32 years in the U.S. Army, during which time he was awarded multiple decorations for valor and for wounds received in combat.Following his retirement from the military, McCaffrey became director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He served in that role for five years, but still serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Drug Court Professionals.Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett also serves on that board, and he invited McCaffrey to be the guest speaker at the district attorney’s annual Policymaker Breakfast on Thursday.Blodgett underscored the seriousness of the drug epidemic – particularly the seriousness of heroin addiction – by noting that there have been 120 fatal overdoses this year in Essex County. Last year, there were 66, Blodgett said.To deal with this issue, Blodgett advocated treating drug offenses according to two tracks: treatment for defendants convicted of drug possession; and incarceration with stiff, state-set penalties for defendants convicted of drug distribution and trafficking. Simultaneously, the office also stresses early education and intervention.McCaffrey discussed the rationale for this approach.He said studies have shown that a person is 25 percent more likely to have a problem with drugs and/or alcohol if he or she has a parent who has a problem, and 50 percent more likely to have a problem if both parents have a problem with alcohol and/or drugs.Parents can also be effective deterrents.”My parents will kill me!” somebody shouted out after McCaffrey asked what the No. 1 reason teenagers cite for not using drugs.McCaffrey also cited early intervention and treatment as being fiscally responsible.He said that ignoring a chronic abuser costs approximately $50,000 in damage to a community per year. To incarcerate somebody costs $25,000. Drug court, an intensely supervised probation and court-directed treatment for defendants who are guilty of drug offenses, costs $8,000 to $9,000 for a participant, McCaffrey said.Despite his optimism about historically low drug rates, he (quite colorfully) said some recent trends in drug and alcohol use concerned him. He dismissed the notion of drugs as an inner-city problem and said no community – whether affluent or poor or minority – should tolerate drug activity on its streets.”The money for the drugs comes from the suburbs!” he exclaimed.McCaffrey described needle-exchange programs as “compassionate and ill-thought-out,” and suggested putting such a program in a suburb rather “than under a bridge in a minority community” and then evaluating its support after a year.He said the idea that marijuana was the way to treat cancer was “total poppycock nonsense.” But he did cite alcohol abuse on college campuses as why “your daughter switched from studying engineering to Egyptian archeology before dropping out of school pregnant and with STDs.”And he described heroin as “the best drug of all: If you have heroin, you don’t need friends.”McCaffrey told the audience the way to deal with all of this is “prevention and education,” and that treatment is available and effective. He urged the gathered school officials, state and city lawmakers and social-service providers to advocate on the state level to support after-school programs, sports, music and anything that engaged children so they would not turn to drugs.”You gotta love the guy,” Blodgett said at the close of the presentation. “He tells it like it is.”