Pubdate: Sun, 13 May 2001
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Copyright: 2001 Tallahassee Democrat.
Contact:  http://www.tdo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/444
Author: William Raspberry

WE NEED A SMARTER APPROACH TO DRUG ADDICTION

Haven't Darryl Strawberry and Robert Downey Jr. been given enough "second" 
chances? Isn't it time to let justice do its thing and put these two jokers 
away for long, long stretches?

Only the saints among us haven't been tempted to ask some version of those 
questions. Only the fools among us think long-term incarceration would do 
much for either of these celebrated junkies - or for the rest of us.

Our confusion on what to do about Strawberry and Downey - both of whom have 
been in trouble, repeatedly, for a variety of drug-connected offenses - is 
a pretty fair reflection of our confusion regarding drug policy in general. 
At one end of the spectrum are those who say that the law is the law, and 
that those who break it get the punishment they deserve. At the other are 
those who, though they might punish severely any theft or violence 
associated with acquiring drugs, believe the chief victim of drug abuse is 
the drug abuser. What's the point of punishing a guy who's already killing 
himself?

But most of us slop around in the middle. The first view ignores our 
feeling that addicts are sick people for whom punishment is likely to be 
useless, but the second overlooks the probability that 
he's-only-doing-it-to-himself permissiveness will tempt more people into abuse.

We want to punish in order to deter, but we understand that Strawberry and 
Downey - and who knows how many scores of thousands more? - cannot be 
punished or shamed into sobriety. It's almost like bringing charges against 
a guy who tries to throw himself in front of a train.

Is there a rational middle ground - some reasonable place between long-term 
incarceration of the ill and decriminalization? What should we do with a 
Darryl Strawberry?

I put the question to Howard Simon, an official of the Partnership for a 
Drug-Free America.

"Strawberry's is a tragic case," said Simon. "Here is a guy who has a 
disease, plain and simple. No matter what you think about the law, we need 
to find some way to have him get the help he so obviously needs. If there 
is no treatment, we're not helping. That's the first thing we need to 
understand: This is a very serious disease. The good news is, it's treatable."

But treatment doesn't work for people who are not yet ready to kick their 
addictions. It's our exasperation with people who, like Strawberry and 
Downey, keep going through the cycle of abuse, discovery, remorse, 
treatment and abuse again that makes us want to stop the game and toss them 
in jail. Listen to Simon:

"Sometimes cancers recur. Sometimes cancer patients don't follow their 
doctor's orders. But that doesn't mean we're supposed to throw people on 
the scrap heap. It costs too much - from their point of view, obviously, 
but also from ours, including financially. A Rand Corp. study says every 
dollar you spend on treatment saves you seven dollars down the road, in 
crime and other costs, including the cost of incarceration."

He'd not only make treatment widely available. For people like Downey and 
Strawberry, he might coerce treatment.

"Treatment is great, fantastic, and I hope the nation gets behind it. But 
prevention is even better. The people who say (as the Lindesmith 
Foundation's Ethan Nadelmann said the other day) that you can't achieve a 
drug-free society so you shouldn't try have got it wrong. You can't achieve 
a cancer-free society, either, but don't tell researchers they should stop 
looking for ways to stop cancers from occurring in the first place."

That is the Partnership's role in the drug wars. This organization of media 
and communications professionals was founded in 1987 with the simple 
premise that if you can use media to sell things, you can use media to 
unsell things - including drug use.

"There may not be much we can do about a Strawberry or a Downey," said 
Simon, the Partnership's associate director of public affairs. "For those 
guys, drug use is really not a choice. What we try to do is help kids in 
their teens to reject drugs while it is still a choice, and for that they 
need both information and encouragement in making good choices."

It is, of course, what we do in the case of tobacco. We promote social 
sanctions against smoking, publish the health horror stories, develop 
treatment protocols and pass laws against sales to minors. What we don't do 
is put nicotine addicts in jail.
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