STRAWBERRY AND DOWNEY NEED HELP - NOT JAIL TIME

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.

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 press 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.

It's time we stopped treating nonviolent drug addicts as criminals.
Putting them in jail doesn't help us or them. Forcing them into
treatment in lieu of jail isn't helpful either, as Downey and
Strawberry prove. 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 network 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 Bill Clinton talked about
spending more on treatment, but that ratio has remained the same for
years. President George W. Bush is proposing more of the same.

In New York State, an estimated 1.5 million people have
substance-abuse problems, according to state drug treatment officials.
But, on any given day, only 115,000 are in some form of
state-sponsored treatment programs. The last two governors have talked
about increasing treatment, but funding for it has remained flat while
prison spending exploded.

It's time to change direction. We should spend enough money on drug
treament 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.