TREATMENT, NOT JAIL, FOR NON-VIOLENT ADDICTS

Robert Downey Jr.'s latest arrest, on charges of being high on drugs on a
California street, was heartbreaking, given that it was his fourth arrest
in five years. So was Darryl Strawberry's arrest earlier this month after
he violated probation by going on a drug binge for the fourth time in less
than two years.

Both are now back in drug rehab and face possible jail sentences for
violating their parole. I hope they'll be successful this time. But, if
not, they shouldn't go back to jail. It's time they pulled the dogs off
Downey and Strawberry.

(Strawberry was spared imprisonment last Thursday when a judge sentenced
him to a drug treatment center for violating his probation during a
four-day drug binge.)

Both men have fame and money. Both put major careers at risk by repeatedly
fouling up. Both have lots of people pulling for them - people who have
personal and financial stakes in their getting well. Both have been in and
out of treatment, in and out of jail, and on and off probation for using
drugs. And, despite all of this, neither has been able to kick his cocaine
habit.

This state-sanctioned hounding of Downey and Strawberry is wrong. Their
relapses prove that the constant threat of jail and forced drug treatment
have not helped them. And the sight of them being hunted by the police,
with the media in tow to record the latest arrest scandal, is dismaying.

Under the guise of enforcing the law and "helping" them, the legal system
has helped ruin their careers. And Downey and Strawberry are capable of
doing that on their own.

Downey and Strawberry are sick. Drug dependence, like alcoholism, is a
chronic illness, marked by periods of recovery and repeated falls from
grace. It's terrible to watch, especially in people who are so talented.
But that's the nature of the disease.

Strawberry, also burdened by cancer, left his halfway house and went on a
binge. Downey was discovered walking down the street in a drug-induced
state. His previous arrest was for doing drugs alone in a hotel room.
Neither was charged with selling drugs or with committing crimes to get
money for drugs. They are hurting nobody but themselves and their loved ones.

What, then, is the point of hounding them? Their treatment points up the
stupidity of a drug policy that makes a moral point by beating up on people
who are sick. Prosecuting Downey and Strawberry is not going to make
anyone's 18-year-old son or daughter less susceptible to peer pressure to
use drugs. Nor is it going to lessen the importation of cocaine into the
country.

And, if this cycle of arrests, incarcerations and forced treatment doesn't
help people with all the resources that Downey and Strawberry have, it
isn't going to help the poor Joe who's broke, has no talent, who can't
afford the best treatment and who doesn't have the support that these guys
have.

In pursuing our self-righteous drug policy, we do all the wrong things.
This year the federal government will spend $18 billion on the war on
drugs, but two-thirds will go to arresting, prosecuting and jailing drug
dealers and drug users while only a third will be spent on prevention and
treatment. Former President Clinton talked about spending more on
treatment, but that ratio has remained the same for years. President Bush
is proposing more of the same.

It's time to change direction. We should spend enough money on drug
treatment so that anyone who wants it can get it. We should encourage
addicts to get treatment. And, as long as they're not hitting anybody over
the head to get drug money, we should leave it to them, with the
encouragement of their families and friends, to get themselves together.

Even then, as Downey and Strawberry prove, they won't always be successful.
But that's the only way it will happen.