Beyond Addiction

Quick quiz: Which nation that once harbored Osama bin Laden and was governed by the draconian Taliban is again the world's leading exporter of opium? It's Afghanistan, where the drug trade has flourished in the aftermath of the U.S. invasion in 2001. The war on terror has illuminated the utter failure of the war on drugs.

That's no surprise to those of us who understand what this drug war is all about, and what it is not. Under President Bush, like his predecessor Bill Clinton, this nation's drug policy is divorced from the reality that the most effective way to reduce the flow of opium and other drugs coming into this country is by reducing the demand. Yet only about 20 percent of the $20 billion spent each year by the federal government goes to prevention, research and treatment. The rest is aimed at interdiction and law enforcement.

No wonder, then, that a recent report by the Department of Justice finds that a record 2.2 million people are locked up behind bars, most of them for crimes linked to alcohol and other drug problems.

Dear Mr. Moyers: My husband is a drug addict. He wasn't always this way. Until his addiction took over, "Tom" was a church deacon, owned a successful hardware store with his father in our town, and was active in Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce.

A car accident nine years ago led to chronic pain. That's when he got hooked on prescription drugs. He stole money from our business, and started snorting heroin and even smoking crack cocaine! By the time we all figured out what was happening, it was too late. Nobody can believe it, especially me! He's going to plead guilty (because he is, I guess). But why should he go to prison? Isn't there another way out for him and for us? -- Sally F. in Raleigh, N.C.

Hello, Sally: Sadly, legal problems are often an unavoidable consequence of addiction.

People like your husband, who would never think of breaking the law, suddenly find themselves driving drunk, stealing, forging prescriptions, hurting somebody else or worse. Yet stone cold sober or stoned out of their minds, people must be held accountable for what they do. Hopefully, your husband will find that his punishment is a strong deterrent, provided that his sentence includes treatment now and continued accountability later.

In many areas of the country, drug courts have been set up to divert low-level offenders from imprisonment to treatment. They can avoid time behind bars provided they successfully complete the program and stay sober on the outside. Even for more serious offenders whose crimes require confinement, in some prisons there are effective treatment programs and 12-step support groups. The bottom line is that whether your husband is sentenced to prison or probation, he must deal with his addiction to ensure he doesn't repeat the mistakes of the past.

There is no single panacea to addiction in America. By itself, treatment is not the answer, because the relative handful of big-time drug dealers and career criminals who thrive on feeding the habits of addicts must be brought to justice and stopped. Federal drug agents and local police departments must enforce the law.

But treatment is a valuable tool in this fight, if part of a balanced approach. When Sally's husband stops getting high, he not only recovers his dignity and respect, he stops demanding some of the supply of opium from Afghanistan and cocaine from Colombia. And that makes it a bit easier on law enforcement, and tougher on the dealers' bottom line.

***

William C. Moyers is the vice president of external affairs for the Hazelden Foundation and the author of "Broken," a best-selling memoir. The paperback edition was released in August 2007. Please send your questions to William Moyers at William@williammoyers.com. To find out more about William Moyers and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.