Pubdate: Mon, 14 May 2001
Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)
Copyright: 2001 Columbia Daily Tribune
Contact:  http://www.showmenews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/91
Author: William Raspberry
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DRUG ABUSERS NEED TREATMENT, NOT PRISON

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 $7 
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," he said.

"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.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe