FACE THE FACTS ABOUT DRUG POLICIES

Well, last week's paper was filled with fascinating drug news, all
indicative of the fact that society simply does not understand
addiction or what to do about it.

Quite frankly, nothing we've done in the last 25 years seems to have
put a dent in the number of addicts in the United States. And that's a
fact we need to face.

We also need to face the fact that we are terribly confused about what
to do about it. Three recent articles in the Times make that crystal
clear.

In the year 2000, we don't even know what drugs are good for us and
what drugs are bad for us, and government speaks out of both sides of
its mouth when trying to decide which is which and then how to proceed
from there.

On Dec. 4, despite Gov. Paul Cellucci's veto of a proposal to instruct
the Department of Public Health to open needle exchange programs in
local communities without local approval, the department has targeted
two North Shore cities as potential locations for programs.

And Gloucester's one of them.

It seems that Jean McGuire, director of the Department of Public
Health's HIV/AIDS bureau, said the number of organizations that have
agreed to participate shows that the attitudes may be changing about
needle exchange programs. As a result, Gloucester is one of nine
communities statewide to be granted $10,000 to launch a public
relations campaign geared toward changing the minds of those who disagree.

Aside from the fact that it's a tad suspect for the state to use tax
dollars to change the opinion of the people, a reasonable response to
McGuire would be: Who cares that the number of government agencies in
favor of needle exchange programs has increased? Attaining government
funding is a large part of their job, but the decision about how to
apply that money should be made by the people who live and breathe the
issue, not by administrators who think they know best.

And obviously, the know-it-alls at the administrative level who
support needle exchange programs have not been able to make their case.

Furthermore, at the risk of belaboring the point, two people have died
in Gloucester recently of heroin overdoses. A needle exchange program
would have done nothing to save them, but $90,000 of public relations
money added to the funding to set up needle exchange programs might
have.

Many needle exchange proponents have their hearts in the right place,
but they don't get it. Only a comprehensive program with a drug-free
goal can save lives.

We should close our eyes and our ears to any commercials.

Ironically, a Dec. 6 article announcing that "Some seek peace treaty
in war on drugs" charges the same state Department of Public Health
that wants to give needles to heroin addicts is holding up a 1996 law
that allows sick people to use marijuana.

It seems sick people can only use marijuana if they register to
participate in a Department of Public Health research project that
violates federal law.

And what might the difference be between the two approaches?

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that state agencies get the money
in one case, but in the other case it's the pot growers who get the
money.

If there's another reason why the Department of Public Health would
support needle exchange programs but not pot as medicine, I can't find
it.

And I've little patience for a government that OKs the depositing of
medicinal poison into one's body to treat a deadly disease but refuses
to OK a medicinal herb to relieve the effects of that poison.

And last, but surely not least, a Dec. 7 article featured DARE officer
Wellesley Eastman defending the anti-drug program he's operated for 10
years.

Regardless of what ultimately happens to the DARE program, Eastman
deserves the thanks of parents everywhere for a dedicated effort to
prevent drug use by our children. Nonetheless, the numbers have shown
that DARE doesn't work either.

Quite frankly, nothing works but the drugs.

In my lifetime, I've lived through the days when addiction wasn't a
common word, when "if it feels good, do it" was the national mantra,
when methadone maintenance was the miracle cure, when "just say no"
was the real antidote, and when giving up and giving needles has
become the answer. And all the while, a significant portion of
Gloucester's community has consistently continued to die as the result
of drug abuse.

What we can't understand, and what we are so afraid to talk about, is
the simple fact that drugs kill pain, and as long as they work, we
will never stop the attempt of a human being in pain from trying to
administer his or her own anesthesia.

We need to accept the fact that drugs are popular because they work.
Only then will we be able to move on to the creative thinking it will
take to pick up the pieces once the inevitable kicks in, which is
addiction, jail and/or the death for our children.