Pubdate: Fri, 25 Apr 2008
Source: Jewish Journal, The (CA)
Page: Cover Story
Copyright: 2008 The Jewish Journal
Contact:  http://www.jewishjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4519
Author: Roberto Loiederman, Contributing Writer
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n000/a029.html

DRUG ABUSE DEBATE: LEGALIZATION, MEDICATION OR THERAPY?

On a wall at Beit T'Shuvah's sanctuary there are plaques with the 
names of those connected with Beit T'Shuvah who have passed away. One 
of those names is that of Josh Lowenthal, a former resident who died 
on June 11, 1995.

The Jewish Journal recently ran a story about "One-Way Ticket," Rita 
Lowenthal's memoir about her son, Josh, who was addicted to heroin 
from the age of 13 until his death from a self-administered overdose 
25 years later. Lowenthal's moving account of her son's life 
punctures the myth that addiction can't happen to Jews. It can, and it does.

Another myth that Lowenthal would like to puncture is that if addicts 
only had enough willpower, they could kick the habit -- that only 
weak-willed people can't pull themselves out of the addiction abyss.

A recent Newsweek cover story is called, "The Hunt for an Addiction 
Vaccine." The article says that science views addiction not as a 
failure of willpower, but as a "chronic, relapsing brain disorder to 
be managed with all the tools at medicine's disposal," and that the 
National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) is developing and testing 
compounds that could prevent or treat addiction.

NIDA scientists have concluded that there are three kinds of 
self-control: putting off present gratification for a later reward, 
processing sufficient information before making a decision and being 
able to change responses that have become automatic.

It should come as no surprise that addicts score poorly in all these 
categories. In other words, addicts' brains are wired to opt for 
immediate rewards, to leap before they look, and to keep repeating 
accustomed behavior in a rote manner. The medicines in development 
would change the addict's responses in all three areas.

Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy 
Alliance, has a different focus: He objects to what he calls the 
massive failure of the global war on drugs. Like a growing number of 
responsible voices, Nadelmann argues for drug legalization, or at 
least decriminalization.

In a recent article in Foreign Policy magazine, Nadelmann makes the 
case that the war on drugs cannot be won -- he cites "mountains of 
evidence documenting its moral and ideological bankruptcy." He writes 
that U.S. administrations have let rhetoric and ideology drive 
policy, and that in countries that have adopted a different way of 
dealing with drugs and addicts -- Britain, Canada, Germany, the 
Netherlands and Switzerland -- the result has been "a reduction in 
drug-related harms without increasing drug use."

When asked about this, Beit T'Shuvah staff and residents uniformly 
say that legalization and pharmacological addiction treatments are 
beside the point. Their attitude is that addiction -- defined in 
their Web site as the "obsessive pursuit of drugs, alcohol, food, 
sex, money, property and/or prestige" -- is not about drugs, it's 
about the issues that lead to drug use, issues that also lead to 
other self-destructive behavior.

One long-time Beit T'Shuvah resident, a middle-age man with an MBA 
and a background in the entertainment industry, said that "you can 
solve your drug problem and still not be any closer to an effective 
life. The point is to find out what the problems underneath are: not 
living your life effectively, not living it with truth. The problem 
is not the drugs.

"You can legalize drugs, you can find chemical ways of neutralizing 
the effects of drugs, but the end result will be the same: the root 
problem will still be there, and the person who has that problem will 
suffer in a different way. If it's not drug addiction, if it's not 
incarceration, it'll be family dysfunction or abuse or other issues. 
These are all manifestations of a deeper problem, just as drug 
addiction or alcoholism is a manifestation of a deeper problem. And 
it's that deeper problem that has to be treated."

Lowenthal agrees that addiction's deeper problems should be 
addressed: "Anyone who has been shamed and punished for addiction 
needs understanding and support." But she points out that the 
situation with illegal drugs, as opposed to alcohol or prescription 
drugs, makes users subject to the law: Her son was in and out of San 
Quentin and other prisons because he stole in order to maintain his 
addiction. "Try getting a student loan, a job, or sympathetic in-laws 
after serving time in prison," Lowenthal says.

If her son had lived in a society where heroin use is not a crime and 
where it's cheaply available, then he probably wouldn't have stolen, 
she believes. He probably wouldn't have gone to prison over and over, 
and he might not have chosen to take his own life at the age of 38. 
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