Pubdate: Fri, 22 Feb 2002
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2002, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Author: Adam Brickner
Note: Adam Brickner is the drug coordinator for the City and County of Denver.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

SPEAKOUT: DRUG ABUSE EFFORTS REQUIRE PARADIGM SHIFT

The recent deaths from heroin overdose in Denver, Douglas and Arapahoe 
counties once again underscore that the disease of drug addiction has no 
boundaries. Historically ignored as another affliction of the urban ghetto, 
drug addiction in all its forms tragically touches the lives of people from 
all neighborhoods and walks of life.

In Colorado, emergency room admissions for heroin overdose of patients 25 
years old and younger nearly doubled from 22 per 100,000 in 1996 to 41 per 
100,000 in 2000. And one out of every 12 people reports ongoing drug or 
alcohol abuse or addiction problems. The percentage of the population that 
reports drug and alcohol addiction is higher in rural areas than in Denver.

Compared to other states, Colorado ranks first in marijuana use, second on 
the national Alcohol Problem Index, and 15th on the Drug Problem Index. 
What distinguishes addiction from occasional use or abuse is the compulsive 
craving and usage of alcohol and other drugs without regard for the social 
or legal consequences. The choice to imbibe turns into an addiction that 
destroys lives.

The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reports that of every $100 of 
federal money spent on substance abuse in Colorado, $99.94 goes to 
"shoveling up" costs of addiction -- medical care, emergency room care, 
police activity, incarceration, and social services. Colorado is last in 
the country with only the remaining six cents being spent on prevention, 
treatment and research.

Dealing with the aftermath of drug and alcohol addiction requires more and 
more resources, while less costly and more proactive solutions escape us 
because we continue to view addiction as a failure of morals or will and 
not as a chronic relapsing disease. Without a paradigm shift toward more 
prevention, treatment and research dollars, Colorado will continue to pay 
the price for addiction with families destroyed, careers ended, lives 
uprooted or lost, crimes committed and jails overcrowded.

Recognizing addiction as a disease shifts the focus from blaming the 
individual to using scientific research as a guide to prevent and manage 
the disease. Research by The National Institute of Drug Abuse confirms that 
addiction is clearly treatable. We know what works and what doesn't. With 
ongoing treatment tailored to individual needs, patients can learn to 
control their condition and live relatively normal lives.

Observing that addiction has no cure yet, William Cope Moyers notes, 
"addiction does have a solution: recovery. And recovery is possible when 
people from all walks of life are treated with dignity and respect, not 
punished, by their society. When they are given a sense of hope, and when 
they learn to take personal responsibility for living with this illness, as 
people in recovery."

As a community we tend, instead, to isolate addicts and their families 
under a veil of shame and we ignore the disease until people become gravely 
ill or commit a crime.

Like all chronic, relapsing disease, addiction must and can be managed over 
a lifetime the same way we manage asthmaor high blood pressure. Addiction 
doesn't lend itself to quick fixes. Managing addiction is a daily effort. 
Just as monitoring blood sugar and eating habits makes up the daily routine 
of the diabetic, recovery from addition is not a cure but a way of life.

Until we embrace the view that addiction is a treatable brain disease and 
not a personal failing, we will continue to focus public dollars on the 
"shoveling up" costs of addiction to the detriment of prevention, treatment 
and research.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager