Pubdate: Tue, 14 Oct 2003
Source: New York Post (NY)
Copyright: 2003 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.nypost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/296
Author: Jean Somers Miller

LESSONS RIGHT & LEFT

BEHIND the political chatter over Rush Limbaugh's all-too-human admission 
of drug addiction is a more important question: Why would someone of his 
stature risk everything for a drug?

Scientific research has begun to give us the answer, showing that repeated 
exposure to drugs and/or alcohol changes brain functions in fundamental, 
long-lasting ways - and revealing genetic and environmental vulnerabilities 
to addiction as well. Ongoing research will provide more insights in the 
future.

As commissioner of the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance 
Abuse Services (OASAS), I learned not to be surprised when famous, highly 
successful, people found themselves in the grip of some chemical addiction.

Indeed, for well over 125 years medical authorities (if not always the 
public at large) have recognized chemical dependence as a social, 
public-health and criminal-justice threat - and labored to mitigate the 
damage, or stop it altogether.

The first public concern about drug addiction came right after the Civil 
War: Many veterans had become dependent on the blessedly potent new opiate 
painkillers they were given. Ever since, we have vacillated between seeing 
addiction as a moral lapse and seeing it as a sickness.

Even now, liberals will use Limbaugh's admission to argue for expanded drug 
treatment. Conservatives will contend that anyone who uses illegal 
substances must pay the consequences. But these views are not mutually 
exclusive.

Drug addiction is a brain disease with serious social implications; its 
treatment does deserve expanded financial commitment at the local, state 
and federal levels. But those who suffer from it do need to accept 
responsibility for their actions.

Limbaugh, who has accepted responsibility, could play a critical role in 
helping large numbers of hitherto uninformed people understand drug 
dependency and how to get on the road to recovery.

As Limbaugh himself has already learned through two failed efforts, 
detoxification in and of itself is not a cure for addiction. It's an 
important initial phase of treatment, to control potential serious 
withdrawal symptoms. But without further treatment, more drug abuse is 
almost certain.

But there are many highly successful and proven courses of treatment 
available, both with or without medication, in-patient, out-patient, 
individual and group counseling, and therapeutic communities.

In all of them, participants must face both their failings and their 
responsibilities, no matter how great their past achievements have been. 
They must repair damaged relationships and get on with their lives in a 
positive and productive manner - a new beginning which can take 
considerable time and may, as is often the case, include relapse.

But it can work. It does work. And it will work for Rush Limbaugh.

My agency, OASAS, built an extensive data system and followed the status of 
patients who had been in treatment for six months. The outcomes were 
extraordinary. In one review of more than 18,000 patients, 68 percent to 83 
percent (depending on their type of treatment) of those involved 
discontinued use.

Other studies prove beyond doubt that treatment is effective and lasting. 
One, of clients a year after leaving treatment, found that abstinence and 
other positive behavioral changes had been dramatic.

As OASAS commissioner, I visited dozens of drug-treatment programs. Over 
and over, like a refrain, I heard this simple but powerful sentence from 
those receiving care: "Now I have my life back."

Coddled? Punished? No, just getting their lives back.

We can all hope that when Limbaugh returns to his show, he too will have 
his life back - and that, using the candor and verbal skill on which he 
justifiably prides himself, he'll share with others the genuine success 
that drug treatment can achieve.

In the meantime, let us not, shall we say . . . rush to judgment.

Jean Somers Miller, an attorney, was commissioner of the New York State 
Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services 1995-2002. She now does 
consulting work at the federal and state level.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens