WHAT SHOULD SOCIETY DO WITH DRUG ADDICTS

REICH: Thanks for staying with us. I'm Robert Reich, sitting in for
Bill O'Reilly.

There's disturbing news tonight about the actor Robert Downey Jr. Los
Angeles police say he's been arrested again on drug charges. This
comes as Daryl Strawberry fights his own very public battle with drug
addiction.

What does society do with people who can't seem to kick the habit? In
a FACTOR flashback tonight, Bill's conversation with former Miami
Dolphin football star Eugene "Mercury" Morris, who spent three and a
half years in prison on a cocaine conviction before his conviction was
overturned.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: How many years were you involved with cocaine,
and how severe was your addiction?

EUGENE "MERCURY" MORRIS, FORMER PRO FOOTBALL PLAYER: I think I was
involved about five or six years. Bill, it's not really important how
long you were involved in it, but it's important when you finally
wised up and was able to realize that you needed to stop. And for me,
that was in September of 1982.

And something very important, I got busted in August of 1982. The day
that I went home after I bonded out, crying, and, you know, TV cameras
everywhere, national television, it was a whole ridiculous scene.
When I went home, I remembered where I had hid a couple of grams of
coke, and I went home and I did that cocaine right after I got busted,
so...

O'REILLY: Yes, you were an addict, and...

MORRIS: ... I stopped -- I stopped -- well, I don't like to use that
term, because I was addicted to being stupid. You can get over being
that. If you make the declaration that you're addicted to cocaine,
then unfortunately that's what -- the circumstance you have to live
out of.

And unfortunately, when somebody tells you that and you believe it,
then you live out of the circumstance of that believability, and
unfortunately...

O'REILLY: Do you, do you believe in the...

MORRIS: ... that's what...

O'REILLY: ... do you believe in the disease deal, that they have a
disease, and some of them can't overcome the disease? Do you believe
in that?

MORRIS: Well, actually, from the basic languaging of the definition of
disease, the word "disease" means the inability to be at ease. There
are people who have a disease about being in front of a microphone,
being in front of a McDonald's, being in front of a bottle of Jack
Daniels, being in front of cocaine. From that aspect, I do believe
it, but not disease like cancer.

I think that in our society, we have been given an opportunity and
chances to do -- to make certain choices in our lives, and
unfortunately, Daryl Strawberry has put himself in a position where as
a guy said on the - - today on a show that I did, we -- he's been
given chance after chance after chance that we gave him. But he's
never taken advantage of any of those, so...

O'REILLY: No, he hasn't.

MORRIS: ... therefore...

O'REILLY: He hasn't, and...

MORRIS: ... a thousand chances means nothing, but if he had one chance
- -- now, keep in mind, Judge Rehnquist was, I believe, addicted to
Percodan, and he had a chance to overcome that, and he did.

O'REILLY: OK, but let me stop you here...

MORRIS: George...

O'REILLY: ... let me stop you here, because the Strawberry situation
is unfathomable to me because of the children involved. I mean, you
got a little baby and four other children. And this guy has been
given a lot of sympathy from the public and from George Steinbrenner
of the Yankees, he made a lot of money, he could have a job in the
Yankee organization as a minor league batting instructor.

But he simply cannot or will not push away from the narcotics. He
won't do it. So...

MORRIS: And what does that -- but what does that tell
you?

O'REILLY: That tells me that he's too weak, he's too weak to do it, he
doesn't want to do it. Because you did it...

MORRIS: That tell...

O'REILLY: ... thousands of other people did it. It can be done, we
know it can be done. He doesn't want to do it.

MORRIS: OK, wait a minute, hold it right there.

O'REILLY: He doesn't want to do it. Right?

MORRIS: Wait a minute. You said that twice.

O'REILLY: Right.

MORRIS: Wait a minute. Let's go back and look at what they've said.
They said that this guy, we've given him a chance for rehabilitation.
I bet that 90 percent of the audience can't really define that term
"rehabilitation." The term "rehabilitation" means to return to one's
former state. So if I was a bank robber and I robbed a bank, I'd get
a 20- year sentence. I'd do five years, eight months, and 21 days,
because that's the time for someone who robs a bank.

When I get out, I'm in that same state of sociology, because I'm
hanging out with the same people. I'm in that same state of
psychology, because I'm hanging out in the mindset, same mindset. I'm
hanging out with the same circumstance. So by the rate of 77 out of
every 100, I go out and do the same thing.

O'REILLY: All right, fine, we understand that.

MORRIS: Rehabilitation -- let me finish, let me finish, let me finish.
Rehabilitation is an assumption that one has been habilitated. And the
term "habilitate" means to rise to a certain standard or to rise to a
certain quality of existence. One cannot be returned to a quality of
existence that they've never existed in...

O'REILLY: All right. But you can't force -- society can't force
people to be smart, they can't force them to be moral, not in our
society. So what do you do...

MORRIS: Right, and what can you...

O'REILLY: ... what do you do with a Daryl Strawberry, who's obviously
psychically damaged, emotionally, whatever you want to call it, but
continues to hurt himself, his family, and society? What do you do
with him?

MORRIS: You know what? You try to have patience, and you try to have
compassion, and you try to understand that this guy has a bad problem.

In this country, if a person goes out, and up until about 10 years
ago, when Mothers Against Drunk Drivers and whatnot came about, in
this country, if a person ran over somebody and it was a drunk driver,
he would get charged with vehicular manslaughter, as if to suggest
that the car did it, when this person knew full well when they went to
that bar and they had too much to drink if they went out and used that
vehicle as a weapon, and it killed people.

Yet somehow, we don't fathom the exact same circumstance with regard
to other drugs that are illegal.

O'REILLY: All right, philosophically, I'm with you. But I want to
know what you would do if you were the judge in the Strawberry case.
Do you put him in jail? Do you do that?

MORRIS: No...

O'REILLY: Do you let him run around...

MORRIS: No...

O'REILLY: ... on the street, continuing to take cocaine? Do you do
that? What do you do?

MORRIS: You -- no, you know what I would do? I would make sure that
he got the kind of psychological help -- this guy needs...

O'REILLY: He has the best.

MORRIS: ... he needs human behavior -- let me finish.

O'REILLY: He's had the best.

MORRIS: He needs human behavior -- let me finish. He needs human
behavioral science help. He doesn't need rehabilitation or treatment,
he needs to see who he is so that he can make the kind of choices that
work for him. It's a very simple equation...

O'REILLY: It's not.

MORRIS: ... law.

O'REILLY: It's not.

MORRIS: You either get it, or you don't.

O'REILLY: And he doesn't. And I'm telling you...

MORRIS: And he doesn't get it.

O'REILLY: All right, now, who should pay for his psychic
rehabilitation? You and me? Should we pay for this?

MORRIS: Yes.

O'REILLY: We should.

MORRIS: I think so.

O'REILLY: Oh, come on.

MORRIS: To save a human being, yes. To save a human being, yes. You
go look at Congress, they're willing to allocate $3 million to see if
turtles lay their eggs east or west of the turnpike. So, I mean, come
on. It's not about money, it's about human beings and whether or not
- -- is this guy worth saving? And I say that...

O'REILLY: Even -- you know, I would suggest -- I would agree with you,
if a guy would come in and say, I really want to be saved, I really
do, but you know as well as I do that most junkies don't. They like
what they do, they like being high, they like having no
responsibilities. I'm supposed to pay to help them?

MORRIS: I don't agree with that. You go look at people -- look at the
kid who was Archie Bunker's son. He killed himself because he
couldn't get off of cocaine. Come on, man, snap out of it. It's not
about whether or not he's getting high, it's about whether or not he
wants to make the kind of choices that make his life work, and make
the people around him...

O'REILLY: You know what it's about, Mr. Morris? It's about
controlling yourself. And people -- some people can't. And I say, if
you can't control yourself, I don't want to pay for you, but I'm
willing to incarcerate you in a therapeutic environment to take you
away and protect you from yourself. It works.

Mr. Morris, I got to run...

MORRIS: A therapeutic environment.

O'REILLY: Therapeutic. Thanks very much, we appreciate
it.

MORRIS: OK, I'll speak to you again.

O'REILLY: We will.

MORRIS: OK.