DOWN, DOWN, DOWNEY

What would you do to have Robert Downey Jr.'s life? His looks, his
acting talent, his role on the hit TV series "Ally McBeal"?

And why would you even risk throwing all that away? What's the
motivation?

One answer: drugs.

The actor is in the grips of a powerful substance abuse addiction --
so powerful it's pulling him down from on top of the world. He's been
in and out of rehab and jail and prison, and last Tuesday hit a new
low with an arrest for suspicion of being under the influence of drugs
in Culver City, Calif.

"This arrest comes less than a week before Downey's scheduled court
hearing from his arrest last November in Palm Springs, Calif., on
charges of possessing small amounts of cocaine and diazepam and for
being under their influence," says one report.

Downey has become the poster boy for the destructive power of
addiction.

We won't help or prevent situations such as Downey's by shooting down
planes over Peru, or, apparently by shipping people like him off to
prison. Been there, done that. Have we really maxed out on our
prevention efforts? Absolutely not. We've not even begun to fund
prevention and rehabilitation programs sufficiently in this country.
Downey may spend six months in a treatment center -- but who can
afford that? Insurance certainly isn't going to cover that kind of
thing in this day and age.

Until we find a way to help such people, rather than mindlessly
punishing them, drug users will continue taking themselves down, down
Downey.

And their loved ones with them.