Pubdate: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle Contact: Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260 Fax: (713) 220-3575 Website: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Author: Thom Marshall VIEWING DRUG WAR FROM BOTH SIDES All that time he was locking up people for using illegal drugs, Billy Lain was himself addicted to a substance. "I was a practicing alcoholic my entire career as a police officer," he said. That career spanned 20 years. Lain, despite his drinking, reached the rank of lieutenant. For five years he served as a supervisor in the vice division, but eventually the boozing got out of control. To make a long story fit the space, Lain's career crashed, and he did a crime, did some jail time, and even wound up homeless before finally managing to turn things around. Now Lain draws on his experience and knowledge in working with kids as a licensed chemical-dependency counselor. "I have seen the so-called `war on drugs' from every side," he said. Lain decided to wade into the ongoing discussion and debate of our criminal-justice system after reading on Sunday the views and comments from Les Wilson, a middle-aged longtime user of illegal drugs. `No Such Thing As Casual Use' Wilson, whose field is computer science, graduated in 1971 from the University of California at Berkeley. He said he has used or experimented with many outlawed substances through the years but now limits his use to marijuana. He said that much of the demand for illegal substances in the U.S. comes from casual users who, like most casual users of alcohol, "do not abuse them and suffer relatively few of the negative effects." Lain does not agree: "I can tell you from personal experience, both as a recovering substance abuser and a professional substance-abuse counselor, there is no such thing as casual use of some of the drugs Mr. Wilson claims to have used," he said. Lain does not believe it is possible for anyone to perform creative work on a technical project while smoking crack cocaine, as Wilson said he did while working on a project that won him a big company award. "Also," Lain said, "I can tell you without equivocation that a human cannot inject a narcotic analgesic `for relaxation' very long or with any regularity before they will find themselves riding that needle out of the necessity driven by a terrible drug addiction." Two men with opposing views -- one a drug user saying that not all people who use illegal substances become addicts, the other a former alcohol abuser now trying to help kids understand the horrors of addiction they risk by experimenting with any drug. Criminalizing A Disease Most noteworthy, however, is the point on which they agree. That is "the irresponsibility of attempting to win the so-called war on drugs by making the chemicals illegal," Lain said. "My years in the police department were spent putting people in jail. Like the typical law enforcement type, I was sure `lock 'em up and throw away the key' was the sure-fire answer to the drug problems." However, he said it became apparent to him that "if locking them up was the answer, surely we would be winning by now." He opposes "making criminals of people who, in fact, are suffering from a disease," and said that "almost nobody is deterred from drug use by the fact that the substance they want to use is illegal to possess." The vast sums being spent "fighting an unwinnable war" should more wisely be invested in treatment and education and prevention programs, Lain said. "Education and prevention works if it is done properly," he said, and on this point he agrees with retired DEA agent John Morgan, who recently was quoted here as saying that the expensive and controversial DARE program should be scrapped. "The police," said Lain, "should get out of the prevention and education efforts and leave it to professionals, educated and trained and committed to the task at hand, not simply doing a job so they can get off the street and get a day shift with weekends off, like a lot of the DARE officers I have known." - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk