DOES ROBERT DOWNEY JR. FILL YOU WITH PITY OR ANGER?

"Don't do this to me. You're going to ruin my life."

- --Robert Downey Jr., pleading with the cops who arrested him Nov.
26.

More than a few readers have pointed out to me that Robert Downey Jr.
should take a cue from George W. Bush.

"Some day he can just refuse to talk about any of the partying he did
when he was young and foolish," said one caller. "If it worked for our
next president, it should be an [acceptable excuse] for a guy who's
just an actor."

"When Downey [turns] 40, he'll find God and we'll not talk about any
of this again," wrote B.F. Helman of Chicago.

Maybe so. At this point I'm just hoping Downey makes it to
40.

The voluminous and very passionate responses I received to my column
last week about Downey's latest arrest were split into two camps.

Many addicts, and people whose lives have been horribly bruised to the
brink of destruction because they loved addicts, were angry with me
for what they perceived to be a callous disregard for a man who had
once again succumbed to his disease.

"You ask why Downey can't get his s - - - together and accept the
great gifts he's been given in life," wrote one reader.

"He's sick, that's why. He's a late-stage addict. . . . Please realize
that our culture would do well to remember that Downey is seriously
ill. Your reasoning could also be applied to someone like Annette
Funicello, who has MS; how come she can't get her s - - - together and
get up out of her wheelchair and walk over to the fridge for a soda?"

First off, nowhere in the column did I say that addiction to
substances--whether you're guzzling a fifth of vodka every night or
snorting a gram of coke up your nose each morning--is not a disease. I
accept the research evidence and the testimony of those who have been
down the spiral staircase of addiction that it's an illness and should
be treated as such.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a difference between being hooked on
a high and suffering from a debilitating physical illness for which
there is no cure. To play off the example presented by my e-mailing
friend, no matter how much Annette Funicello resolves to get out of
that wheelchair, no matter how much she devotes herself to the best
treatment available, she will not be able to make it happen. She
didn't participate in the process that put her in that wheelchair--but
Downey most certainly contributed to the kind of crippling disease
from which he suffers.

The drug addict is sick. The MS patient is sick. One has a hell of a
lot more control over the future than the other.

As for whether Downey should be incarcerated: No. And
yes.

If we were talking about "only" possession of drugs, I'm all for
treatment in lieu of jail time, whether we're talking about a famous
actor, a crackhead or a yuppie who keeps some Thai stick and a baggie
of high-grade coke stashed in his bedroom closet. As long as you're
not getting behind the wheel of a car, as long as you're not dealing
to kids, as long as you're not hurting anyone other than yourself, I
see no difference between people who get boozed up all the time and
people who choose other messages of pleasurable escape.

Our prisons are bulging as it is. If we stopped locking up the
small-time drug users tomorrow, fine by me.

But let's remember Downey's history. He was in a car and he had coke,
heroin and a gun with him when he was arrested in 1996. What if he had
accidentally plowed that car into some family's mini-van? And what was
the gun for, to protect himself from overzealous autograph-seekers? To
make him feel tough when doing a deal?

On another occasion, Downey was found curled up in the bedroom of his
neighbor's 11-year-old son (who was not in the room at the time).
Whose home is he going to break into next time around?

Downey also went AWOL from a treatment center once before. One can
sympathize with a judge who will look at his case history and make the
call that prison is the only place left for him to go, talent and
puppy-dog benign remorse notwithstanding.

And if you think I've been tough on Downey, you should sift through
some of the responses I've received from recovering addicts and
alcoholics who have faced down their demons without any of the
publicity, money or perks Downey has been afforded during his long sad
trip.

Toughest of all? Actors. Actors who see Downey squandering his gifts
and good fortune. As one of them put it:

"I've been in this business for 10 years and there are tons of actors
who would give their right and left arms to have the opportunities
that punk is throwing away year in and year out.

"God bless him. He needs it."