PRISON NOT A CURE-ALL, AS DOWNEY SHOWS

Robert Downey Jr. might be the best poster boy we've ever had for the
failure of the war against drugs.

Downey is the famous actor even more famous for constantly being arrested
for drugs.

An addict who was first introduced to drugs when his director father gave
him a marijuana joint at the age of 6, Downey's troubles with the law have
landed him on more front pages than any movie role.

After spending nearly a year in prison for his various drug arrests, he was
freed in a highly publicized decision earlier this year.

Despite having a felony conviction, he was wooed for several movie roles
and landed a guest stint on TV's "Ally McBeal" series just days after his
release.

His celebrity supporters hoped he had seen his last stumble and would now
justify the faith shown in him by cleaning up his act.

It didn't turn out that way.

The day after Thanksgiving, Downey was arrested at a Palm Springs, Calif.,
resort and arrested on allegations of possession of cocaine and
methamphetamines. Police came to his room after an anonymous tipster
reported a man with a gun and drugs was at the hotel.

According to reports, Downey didn't resist the arrest; he seemed resigned
to his fate.

Before being handcuffed, he couldn't resist a final slide into the
bottomless pit of self-pity.

"I just want you to know," he reportedly told the officers, "You're ruining
my career, and you're ruining my life."

Of course, he got it wrong, like most addicts in the throes of their addiction.

Nobody ruined Downey's life but himself. But nobody's really trying to help
him, either.

Wrong Solution

Despite statistics estimating that close to a quarter of the U.S. adult
population has some type of addiction - alcohol, cocaine, nicotine,
amphetamines or some other substance - we continue to act as though it's
the kind of problem you can solve with incarceration.

We are a nation of addicts, but the so-called civilized response has been
to consider some drugs socially acceptable - like alcohol - while piling up
the criminal penalties for others, like marijuana and cocaine.

In many communities, it's just as easy to get a bag of dope as it is to buy
a bottle of liquor. In some places, it's easier than finding a good cup of
coffee.

Seems out of whack, doesn't it?

According to a report on drug incarcerations by The Sentencing Project, a
non-profit think tank in Washington, D.C., no issue has had more impact on
the criminal justice system in the past two decades than national drug policy.

Drug arrests have tripled since Ronald Reagan declared a "war on drugs" in
the 1980s.

According to the Sentencing Project: "In response to the drug abuse
problem, national drug policies emphasized punishment over treatment and
have had a disproportionate impact on low-income communities and minorities."

The result is that most inmates in prison for drugs aren't kingpins. Many
have a history of substance abuse in their background, and many are in
prison as a direct result of that addiction. Yet the amount of drug
rehabilitation behind bars has been steadily declining. Most inmates
receive little or no drug treatment at all.

Downey isn't black or Latino like the vast majority of people who get
sentenced for illegal drugs.

He's white, just like approximately 75% of the illegal drug users in
America, most of whom never get caught, the report said.

That's why I think he's the perfect poster boy for this cause, a drastic
reconsideration of what we're doing to our country's addicted.

Many of them, like Downey, are talented and otherwise productive members of
society who simply cannot control their inner demons. Unlike Downey,
there's little national sympathy about their situation.

They're not famous or rich or well-connected. They're just addicts who
can't stop.

And all we've got for them is a prison cell.