Pubdate: Thu, 14 Jan 2016
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2016 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Farah Stockman

THE POLITICS OF ADDICTION

At a GOP presidential debate in September, Carly Fiorina stood out 
for a brave and deeply personal admission: She and her husband had 
lost a child to drug addiction.

"I very much hope I am the only person on this stage who can say 
this," she said. "But I know there are millions of Americans out 
there who will say the same thing."

In a country that's been ravaged by middle-class drug addiction, 
Fiorina's story struck political gold. Three days after that debate, 
CNN declared her the Number 2 favorite in the race. But, it turns 
out, she wasn't the only one on that stage with a deeply personal 
story about addiction. One by one, her rivals have come out to tell their own.

In October, Donald Trump told People magazine about his brother Fred, 
who died of alcoholism. In November, Ted Cruz told Jake Tapper of CNN 
the story of his unsuccessful attempt to rescue his half-sister 
Miriam from a crack house in Philadelphia. (Miriam died of a drug 
overdose in 2011.) And just last week, Jeb Bush opened up about his 
daughter Noelle, who was sent to rehab for faking a drug perscription 
and then went to jail after being caught with crack cocaine in the 
rehabilitation facility. He talked about it in a town hall meeting in 
New Hampshire - a state that knows all too much about addiction - and 
in a magazine piece. Noelle also features prominently in a brand new 
television ad.

Not to be outdone, Chris Christie's speech about his mother's 
struggle with nicotine addiction, and her subsequent diagnosis with 
lung cancer, went viral in November.

And although Rand Paul has yet to give a heartfelt interview about 
it, his 22-year-old son has had three alcohol-related brushes with 
the law. Paul's son William pleaded guilty in May to driving under 
the influence, after he crashed his truck into a parked car.

So that makes at least five - not counting Christie - out of 11 GOP 
contenders - not counting Jim Gilmore - who have had had close family 
members who've struggled with drugs or alcohol. That's 40 percent, an 
awfully high figure, given that research shows that between 10 and 20 
percent of ordinary Americans have directly felt the impact of 
alcohol or drug problems, either in their own lives or in the lives 
of close family members. How could it be that high?

Maybe due to the small sample size, this GOP race is a statistical 
fluke. Or maybe growing up in the glare of the public eye - like 
Jeb's daughter, or Rand Paul's son - increases the chances of 
addiction. But there's a third possibility: that we're undercounting 
the level of addiction in the rest of society. Maybe those of us who 
are not running for president see little upside in admitting just how 
prevalent addiction is in our lives.

"Maybe the time is coming when [the percentage of Americans impacted 
by addiction] is revised upwards, toward 50 percent," said William 
Moyers, vice president of public affairs and community relations at 
the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and author of the best-selling 
memoir "Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption." "For the first 
time, candidates are helping to illuminate the dark recesses of 
illness that has been stigmatized."

Dr. Kima Joy Taylor, director of the National Drug Addiction 
Treatment and Harm Reduction Program, agrees. "Addiction is way more 
prevalent than people pretend," she said.

If politicians can get the rest of us to be more honest about 
addiction, that might be the silver lining of this crazy campaign.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom