MUSICIANS, DRUGS AND GIL SCOTT-HERON

To the Editor:

In "A Ravaged Musical Prodigy at a Crossroads With Drugs" (front page,
July 10), about Gil Scott-Heron, you suggest that coerced treatment is
somehow less effective than treatment that is voluntary. The research is
very solid on this question. Those who must be coerced to enter and
remain in treatment are every bit as likely to succeed as those who
enter on their own.

We now know that treatment, whether coerced or voluntary, works well. At
least four large-scale studies financed by the National Institute of
Drug Abuse have made the case ironclad.

Mitchell S. Rosenthal, M.D.,
President, Phoenix House Foundation
New York, July 11, 2001

To the Editor:

Re "A Ravaged Musical Prodigy at a Crossroads With Drugs" (front page,
July 10):

Drug addicts are suffering from a terrible illness. It inevitably
prevents them from functioning properly on a day-to-day basis,
debilitates them and, all too frequently, kills them. History is replete
with artists whose drug addiction destroyed them and their creativity.

Unfortunately, agents, band members, promoters and others in the music
industry are able to profit from the behavior of the unfortunate souls
who are trapped in their addiction. For these people to excuse their own
enabling behavior under the flag of fostering creativity is a crass form
of hypocrisy.

Gil Scott-Heron is fortunate to have a brother and a former girlfriend
who want nothing other than for him to get better. If only he would
listen to them instead of his enablers.

Glen Feinberg,
Pleasantville, N.Y.