Pubdate: Sun, 07 Dec 2003
Source: Knoxville News-Sentinel (TN)
Copyright: 2003 The Knoxville News-Sentinel Co.
Contact:  http://www.knoxnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/226
Author: Mett Ausley, Jr.
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1794/a06.html

ADDICTION TREATMENT SHOULDN'T BE DENIGRATED

I commend the News Sentinel for its accurate presentation of 
methamphetamine addiction treatment, "Limited treatment options available 
in rural areas to meth users," Nov. 18.

Contrary to enforcement officials' unsubstantiated claims of treatment's 
ineffectiveness, a recent large study in the western United States shows 
nearly half of treated meth addicts to be drug-free after a year. There are 
no indications that relapsed patients cannot be salvaged or that better 
results cannot be achieved through improved techniques and greater 
treatment availability.

One wonders if authorities' denigration of addiction treatment is but 
selfish undercutting of a rival for publicity and lawmakers' handouts. If 
Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess' antipathy toward treatment funding 
genuinely reflects his commitment to efficiency, let him explain why the 
meth lab phenomenon has now traversed the entire continent despite law 
enforcement's monotonous yet expensive efforts to contain it.

Conflicts of interest aside, I see no more reason to heed a sheriff's 
opinion on addiction treatment than a doctor's remarks on catching chicken 
thieves. I also wonder if officials' conspicuous solicitude for children 
displaced by methamphetamine extends to similar victims of parental 
alcoholism, mental illness and other misfortunes and question whether this 
outpouring of concern will continue when no political gain is to be had.

DR. METT AUSLEY JR.

Lake Waccamaw, N.C. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake