ADDICTION HEALING IS KEY IN DOWNEY CASE

I'm not particularly a fan of actor Robert Downey Jr., but I can't help but
feel -- given his apparent total helplessness with his addiction to drugs
- -- that he alone is not to be blamed for the failure of the addiction's
treatment (''The long, slow slide of Robert Downey Jr.: Hollywood is too
much for actor, uncle says,'' Cover Story, Life, Wednesday).

If losing your family, your career, millions of dollars and all
self-respect doesn't keep you from drugs, no time in prison will either.

Obviously something else must be done to help these people from committing
suicide by nostril or injection. We don't put other mentally afflicted
people in jail; why do we do it to these folks?

It seems, given Downey's celebrity, this may be an opportunity to treat him
differently -- to cure him and to publicly establish a better way of
handling this particular disorder. I hope whoever has jurisdiction over his
case will take other approaches into consideration.

Mel Maurer

Westlake, Ohio