CHINESE DRUG OFFICIAL VISITS BRIDGE HOUSE

He Learns About Treating Addicts

A Chinese official touring the United States to learn how this country
treats drug addicts heard a strong testimonial from a participant in a
downtown New Orleans program.

"If it weren't for this program, I'd probably be dead or in jail,"
said Kevin Gardere, 31, who is about to graduate from the Bridge House
treatment center's yearlong program that helped him battle drug and
alcohol cravings.

Huiming Liu, the head of drug prevention and treatment efforts in
Jilin Province, recognized the common refrain from visits to other
cities in the past two weeks, and he's convinced: "Halfway houses are
an excellent idea -- they save lives," he said through a translator.

He plans to go home to northeast China in two more weeks and suggest
that his government establish similar programs.

It's just the kind of reaction officials of the U.S. State
Department's International Visitor Program wanted, said Mary Dennis,
director of the nonprofit Council for Visitors of Greater New Orleans,
which arranged Liu's local appointments. They pick emerging leaders in
various countries, bring them to America and show successful programs,
hoping they will replicate them, she said

New Orleans, where he is spending two days, is Liu's fourth stop in
his seven-city tour, which began in Washington last month and will end
in San Francisco. While in town, he also talked with staff members of
the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Tulane University's
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and the Council on
Alcohol and Drug Abuse.

He said he had been impressed with how well federal, state and local
officials cooperate to fight the United States' drug problem.

But he had some thoughts on what this country could learn from China.
Although it lacks halfway houses, his country has mandatory treatment
centers where addicts, who often commit robberies to support their
habit, are sent for three to six months, he said. Police officers make
the decisions to send them straight to these places, instead of going
through the criminal justice system, where they could get probation
and end up robbing again, he said.

His country had its long-standing drug problem well under control for
about three decades, after the People's Republic of China was
proclaimed in 1949, Liu said. But in the early 1980s, as China opened
up more to the rest of the world, drugs, especially heroin, came in
from other Asian countries.

"The same open window that brings in fresh air can also bring in bad
things," he said.

Liu had many questions on the costs of drug treatment, and he was told
that Bridge House survives mostly on donations. In his country, the
government provides all the treatment and there are no nonprofit
organizations helping, so cost will be a big factor in whether halfway
houses are established, he said.