BETTER DRUG TREATMENT

To the Editor:

I agree with "Overhauling New York's Drug Laws" (editorial, Jan. 21); the
challenge is finding the right kind of treatment for the 10,000 people who
will be diverted from prison into treatment each year. Today's system
emphasizes the medical aspects of addiction - methadone maintenance and
detoxification. It assumes that one can successfully navigate real life once
the addiction stops.

Unfortunately, it is real life that most often leads to a return to drugs
and crime. A better approach emphasizes the skills that will help people
succeed. That's what we do at our Ready, Willing & Able program: we give men
a decent place to live in a highly structured program and pay them for the
work they perform every day. We give them the skills that they will need
once they enter the mainstream. No one graduates without a private-sector
job and an apartment he can afford.

It works: 62 percent of those who enter complete the program, and 85 percent
of graduates remain employed, housed and drug-free.

GEORGE MCDONALD

President, The Doe Fund