Health Care Law Expands Coverage for Substance Abuse, Mental Illness

Editor's Note: This is the first in an occasional series on the 10 essential health benefits required by the Affordable Care Act.

Tennessee may be able to open another front in its war against rampant prescription drug abuse through a rule under the new federal health care law requiring health insurance plans to cover substance abuse treatment.

In what federal officials have called "one of the largest expansions of mental health and substance use disorder coverage in a generation," the Affordable Care Act will include care for mental illness and substance abuse among the 10 "essential health benefits" in insurance plans starting Jan. 1.

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To understand why the Koozer family - Justin, Annie and 2-year-old Piper - left all their friends and church family in Ooltewah to move across the country to Denver, where they knew no one, try this: Start counting from zero all the way to 2,000. Or go walk two miles. Or watch the nightly news.

It should take you about 30 minutes.

During that time, imagine your heart cracking in half as you watch - helplessly - as your firstborn child shakes and convulses, a victim of her own private earthquake.

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In response to the Oct. 9 front page story, "Drug Babies on Rise," I believe Tennessee and our nation have miserably lost the "War on Drugs." Our state leads the country in methamphetamine use. The number of our state's drug-addicted newborn babies is horrific - 643 babies so far this year.

From babies to senior citizens and every age in between, illegal drugs destroy lives. A few pages over from the baby story, there was another about an 89- year old Detroit man who was arrested for transporting cocaine.

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KNOXVILLE (AP) - Two state lawmakers in Tennessee are pointing to Kentucky's recent approval of hemp farming as they push for a similar measure.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports Republican Sen. Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains is drafting a bill with Republican Rep. Andy Holt of Dresden, and they plan to introduce the measure in next year's legislative session.

Nicely said Kentucky and six other states have passed measures legalizing hemp even though federal law prohibits it. Nicely said there also is support for changing federal laws, notably from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, both from Kentucky.

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Regarding Leonard Pitts' Aug. 18 column, the drug war is part of the problem. Illegal drug users are reluctant to seek medical attention in the event of an overdose for fear of being charged with a crime. Attempting to save the life of a friend could result in a murder charge. Overzealous drug war enforcement results in preventable deaths.

Rehabilitation also is confounded. I think it's safe to say that turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would be rather low if alcoholism were a crime pursued with zero tolerance zeal. Eliminating the penalties associated with illicit drug use would encourage the type of honest discussion necessary to facilitate rehabilitation and save lives.

ROBERT SHARPE, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.

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It's been a war on justice, an assault on equal protection under the law.

And a war on families, removing millions of fathers from millions of homes.

And a war on money, spilling it like water.

And a war on people of color, targeting them with drone-strike efficiency.

We never call it any of those things, though all of them fit. No, we call it the War on Drugs. It is a 42-year, trillion dollar disaster that has done nothing - underscore that: absolutely nothing - to stem the inexhaustible supply of, and insatiable demand for, illegal narcotics. In the process, it has rendered this "land of the free" the biggest jailer on Earth.

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It's been a war on justice, an assault on equal protection under the law.

And a war on families, removing millions of fathers from millions of homes.

And a war on money, spilling it like water.

And a war on people of color, targeting them with drone-strike efficiency.

We never call it any of those things, though all of them fit. No, we call it the War on Drugs. It is a 42-year, trillion-dollar disaster that has done nothing - underscore that: absolutely nothing - to stem the inexhaustible supply of, and insatiable demand for, illegal narcotics. In the process, it has rendered this "land of the free" the biggest jailer on Earth.

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Alberta Spruill was a 57-year-old devout churchgoer; a hardworking city employee who had never been in trouble with the law. At 6 a. m. on a May morning, Spriull was preparing to leave her Harlem apartment for work when a group of police officers broke down her door and threw a concussion grenade into her home.

The officers had received a tip from a confidential informant who told them that a convicted felon was selling drugs and guns from Spriull's apartment. The tip, it turned out, was a lie. Spruill suffered a heart attack during the traumatic police raid of her home and died two hours later.

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Government Should Be More Like Dave Chappelle

"Sometimes you should just give up. Quit!" That sage advice came from the incomparable comedian Dave Chappelle, one of pop culture's most famous quitters, during a standup performance in Chattanooga last week. Chappelle abruptly abandoned his Comedy Central sketch show in 2005, leaving $50 million on the table.

Despite the cliches about not giving up and quitters never winning, Chappelle sure seemed content entertaining the packed house at the Tivoli Theatre - probably more so than he would have been if he had continued doing something he didn't want to do year after year.

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Methods vary across district

Some Sumner County high schools have drug tested students for decades even though the Board of Education doesn't have a formal policy on the practice. How high schools across the county handle drug testing is inconsistent and the issue needs to be addressed before school starts in August, Director of Schools Del Phillips and Portland school board member Glen Gregory said at the board's June 18 meeting.

"(Right now) we have a kind of a mix of how and whether drug testing is happening or not happening and what groups are being tested," Phillips said.

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Recently, I viewed a Georgia Public Television program promoting homosexuality.

I flashbacked to programs for legalizing marijuana. In fuzzy '50s film clips, they portrayed conservatives as obsolete as black and white television, square as their thick framed glasses and narrow as their ties. They showed liberals well-focused as colorful, courageous veterans of persecution telling their own stories - style promoting substance.

I also remembered a John Stossel program about three teenagers using marijuana. The smart kid was fine; marijuana relaxed his busy mind. The average kid became distracted; his grades went down. The weak kid became an addict; his grades plummeted.

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Opponents of marijuana decriminalization oppose replacing prohibition with government-controlled regulation, saying ,"We don't want to send our kids the wrong message" This message is: "We think it's OK if our kids abuse marijuana, suffer harmful effects and destroy their lives."

But consider the messages that continuing to support prohibition send: That it's not possible to responsibly consume marijuana; that there is no difference between marijuana use and abuse; that as a recreational substance, it's better to drink alcohol, even though alcohol causes more health problems and greater costs to society; and that it's right to continue a 45-year-old policy that has not reduced demand, cost billions of dollars and inflicted criminal records upon hundreds of thousands.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Rev. Edwin Sanders says churches should help heal the sick, feed the hungry and set prisoners free. Even if they smoke pot. Sanders, pastor of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville, is part of a group of clergy who want to end the war on drugs by decriminalizing drug use.

Sanders said the so-called war on drugs has failed for two reasons. First, he said, addiction to drugs is a disease, not a crime.

"You don't criminalize and incarcerate people who have a disease," Sanders said. "You treat and care for them."

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Drug Laws Not Enforced Fairly, Clergy at Nashville Conference Say

The Rev. Edwin Sanders says churches should help heal the sick, feed the hungry and set prisoners free.

Even if they smoke pot.

Sanders, pastor of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville, is part of a group of clergy who want to end the war on drugs by decriminalizing drug use. They met this week in Nashville at American Baptist College.

Sanders said the so-called war on drugs has failed for two reasons. First, he said, addiction to drugs is a disease, not a crime.

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The power to prosecute is an awesome power that confers the ability to ruin people's lives, which is why an attorney general should use that power judiciously.

There should be, to borrow from language in currency at the Obama Department of Justice these days, "balance." When authorities uphold federal drug laws, they should target the worst offenders first, not prosecute and jail their biggest critics.

When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, a campaign spokesman told me Obama "believes that states and local government are best positioned to strike the balance between making sure that these policies are not abused for recreational drug use and making sure that doctors and their patients can safely access pain relief."

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(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series taken from a conversation with 10th Judicial District Public Defender Richard Hughes. Sunday's installment dealt with alternative funding. This part deals with alternative sentencing.)

There are people who commit crimes who deserve incarceration and require constant supervision separate from the community, but others would benefit from some form of alternative sentencing.

One of the repeated criticisms 10th Judicial District Public Defender Richard Hughes hears is there is so much plea-bargaining in the criminal justice system that too many criminals receive probation without paying restitution. Another criticism is the warehousing of inmates who sit around doing nothing other than waiting to get of jail and then often return to their old lifestyles and commit the same crimes.

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In years past, the Hamilton County grand jury's recommendation that the "state legislature should consider legalizing the possession of a small amount of marijuana, which is not packaged for resale" would have set off a firestorm. Now, however, the suggestion has fostered a reasonable discussion.

Clearly, the American public is ready to reconsider marijuana laws, as evidenced by a March poll conducted by the Pew Research Center that found a majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana. Locally, as the grand jury clearly understands, there is a practical rationale for decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana even for those of us who do not use weed: It would save taxpayers lots of money.

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NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee authorities are preparing to test welfare recipients for drug abuse.

The Legislature passed a bill requiring it and Gov. Bill Haslam signed it nearly a year ago. The statute gives the Department of Human Services until July 1, 2014, to begin screening people receiving welfare for illicit drug use.

The Tennessean reported the agency might begin with a diagnostic quiz that could ask if assistance recipients ever have abused more than one drug at a time or if they felt bad after abusing drugs. Depending on the answers, a urine screening could be required.

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In its list of recommendations for ways improve the local criminal justice system, the Hamilton County Grand Jury encouraged the state legislature to consider legalizing the possession of a small amount of marijuana in order to reduce the burden on courts and jails. Do you believe decriminalizing marijuana for personal use would be a wise policy decision?

President of the Tennessee Eagle Forum

It seems that someone on the Hamilton County grand jury thinks that one way to improve the county's criminal justice system would be to "legalize the possession of a small amount of marijuana which is not packaged for resale."

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The legal and quasi-legal growing of marijuana is big business, and don't just take my word for it. The Wall Street Journal said so on the front page of its weekend edition in a prominent place right below its play story on the Boston manhunt.

"The Pot Business Suffers Growing Pains," says the headline, a cry for capital - seed capital, so to speak - for startup businesses that are a lot better bet, and a lot more fun, than packaging toxic mortgages for sale to municipal pension funds.

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