AM I MY BROTHER'S KEEPER?

Not If He's Using Crack Cocaine Or Meth

The continuing push-and-shove between Council member Carl Mumpower and
the Asheville Police Department is instructive for all city residents.

The APD was arresting someone for cocaine possession when Mumpower,
who's been walking the projects in order to make his point about local
drug trafficking, asked them to look into the sale of yet more cocaine
at a housing project where he'd just been solicited.

I am struck by Mumpower's determination, and I think the issues he
raises demand answers. Unlike me, Mumpower is a Republican and a
Christian. But like me, he's also a psychologist, and as such, he=92s
probably experienced exasperation in trying to treat someone with a
crack addiction or in seeing the havoc the addiction wreaks on families.

I, too, have walked the projects alone, dozens of times, in order to
register voters (though not at night). And like Mumpower, I have often
seen wild-eyed guys jump out from behind buildings, racing to make the
first contact and unload their wares as I've driven slowly along,
voter-registration forms in hand, in my white Ford Ranger with a North
Carolina =93BUCK BUSH=94 tag on the back. I never met one of those dealers
who wanted to register to vote or who said they'd voted.

Instead, a what's-the-point attitude has dominated their responses to
my queries. Are these guys who are so eager to sell drugs also addicts?

As a psychologist who's seen firsthand the significant changes in the
state's mental-health-care system over the past five years, I can=92t
help but wonder. Unquestionably, there is less treatment available now
for addictions than there was before mental-health =93reform.=94 One major
barrier is that unless you've got Medicare, Medicaid or private
insurance (with a hefty deductible, you can bet), you are now
considered a =93state client.=94 That means you receive minimal,
cohort-group therapy and maybe some medications if they're needed and
you're persistent enough (addicts are generally persistent about
obtaining illegal drugs, not legal ones).

If you think this situation is bad, consider that people with physical
illnesses don't even get that much. Perhaps the idea is that crazy
people can kill you, so you have to do something about it, whereas
physically ill people (thankfully) mostly suffer in silence.

As Mayor Bellamy and the progressive caucus on City Council correctly
point out, other social demographics such as education and income
levels and race are also associated with illegal drug use. But if we
don't provide mental-health care that treats addictions, we are left
with only one option: Arrest the dealers and aggressively patrol the
places where the illegal drugs are sold.

Families traumatized by members who would lie to Jesus himself don't
need to be told to wait for mental-health reform to catch up with the
need for treatment. And after seeing addicts sell all their relatives'
valuables and end up tussling with police, this psychologist realized
that no background mental-health issue can be dealt with as long as
the addiction remains in place--and swore that she would never again
treat a client with a cocaine addiction. And so we're back to Mumpower
walking the projects to shine a spotlight on what's going on.

In my opinion, however, not all illegal drugs are created equal (this
probably very quickly distinguishes me from Mumpower). There is no
evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug; nonetheless, it has become
the 21st century's flagship prohibition drug. And to compound the
confusion, much of the research on the drug has been done at the
behest of National Institute of Mental Health--an arm of the U.S.
government, which is firmly committed to keeping marijuana
criminalized.

There's no denying that people in certain occupations, such as
surgeons and drivers of big rigs, need to be monitored for marijuana
use, but even this argument is inseparable from broader power relations.

When was the last time you heard of a surgeon who'd been asked to hand
over some urine?

And let's not forget that marijuana is useful in treating a variety of
physical ailments, such as glaucoma, chemotherapy-induced nausea and
chronic pain. Furthermore, employers' demands that they be able to
peer into your urine and discern what you've been up to when you get
off of work amount to intimidation--a tool used to maintain a coerced,
browbeaten work force. At this point in the slow development of homo
hominus americanus, the alternative to both the =93legalize it all=94 and
the =93jail all the dopers=94 schools of thought is a more nuanced
approach involving non-arm-twisting monitoring of drug usage along
with a healthy respect for the effects of all drugs, whether legal or
illegal.

Clearly, however, people who use crack or meth are asking for a world
of trouble. These drugs should be off limits, and dealers should be
severely punished, with jail time the treatment of choice.

[Psychologist Marsha V. Hammond lives and practices in Asheville.]