Pubdate: Sat, 18 Nov 2000
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: (213) 237-7679
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/discuss/
Author: Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Note: Hutchinson is the author of "The Disappearance of Black 
Leadership" (Middle Passage Press, 2000) and host of a Tuesday night 
talk show on KPFK-FM (90.7). Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?170 
(Downey, Robert Jr)

COUNTERPUNCH

Downey Gets Sympathy That Isn't Shown To Other Abusers

The moment the news hit that ill-fated actor Robert Downey Jr. had 
been busted again for drugs, many Hollywood film and TV executives 
quickly rallied to his defense. Television producer Norman Lear 
flatly stated that Downey needed treatment, not jail. The producers 
of Fox's "Ally McBeal," the series in which Downey appears, praised 
him for his work and said they had no intention of dumping him before 
he finished work on two more episodes of the show.

This circle-the-wagons and defend-our-own attitude of many in 
Hollywood toward Downey is not surprising, or new. Despite several 
well-publicized busts for drug use and weapons possession charges, 
Downey's stock never dropped in the industry. Indeed, the more he got 
busted, the more producers and directors stampeded to get him back in 
front of a camera.

The compassion they showed for Downey is certainly understandable. 
Downey desperately needs help--long and sustained help--and Lear is 
absolutely right in saying that jailing him won't give him that help.

But thousands more, like Downey, abuse drugs. And they are also 
desperately in need of public compassion and a long-term treatment 
program to kick their drug habit. Yet I don't hear the Hollywood 
luminaries who plead for help for Downey also plead that they be 
treated and not jailed. The big difference is that these drug abusers 
aren't high-profile, bankable screen commodities. They are mostly 
poor and, in far too many cases, black and Latino. Unlike Downey, 
they won't be released on minimal bail or be cheered for any efforts 
they make to try to clean up their lives.

There are also two other potential dangers in Hollywood's 
laissez-faire attitude toward Downey's drug woes.

The first is that by publicly expressing unreserved sympathy for 
Downey, Hollywood reinforces the notion that there is one standard 
for drug abuse by the rich and the famous, and another for the poor 
and unknown. Thousands of poor people are currently incarcerated in 
California prisons for minor drug-related offenses. A sizable number 
of them were sentenced under California's rigid three-strikes law, 
which mandates a 25-year-to-life sentence for three felony offenses, 
drug possession being the most common of their crimes. In theory, 
Downey could have been prosecuted under this law but wasn't. Yet 
thousands of others were, and again the overwhelming majority of them 
are black and Latino.

The second danger is that the uncritical indulgence of Downey by many 
Hollywood luminaries could trigger backlash to the growing public 
willingness to adopt a more sane and enlightened attitude toward the 
handling of the nation's drug problem. Such a backlash could 
jeopardize the present efforts by the Congressional Black Caucus to 
push Congress to eliminate the gaping racial disparities in the drug 
sentencing laws. These laws mandate severe sentences for petty drug 
crimes.

It could also strengthen the case made by opponents of Proposition 
36--the recently passed initiative that mandates treatment, not jail, 
for nonviolent, first-time drug users--that it is an ill-conceived 
measure that will lead to more drug use and crime. They insist that a 
policy prescribing treatment rather than jail encourages drug abusers 
to thumb their noses at the courts and the law--and thereby puts the 
public at greater risk.

Many health professionals and law enforcement officials now agree 
that the nation's current drug policy that relies on jails and not 
treatment is bad policy. They also agree that the best way to change 
our bad drug policy into good public policy is not to build more 
lockup facilities and pass even tougher drug laws, but to shift 
funding from prisons to programs for drug education, treatment and 
prevention. Unfortunately, Downey could serve as the poster boy for 
those hard-liners who want to undo that move in the right direction.

This is certainly not what those in Hollywood who go to bat for 
Downey intend. They genuinely want to see him get the right kind of 
help he needs to clean himself up for good. And he should, but so 
should others in the same predicament. And Hollywood should raise its 
voice in support of them as well.
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