DRUG, ALCOHOL ABUSE CAN BE ERADICATED

Just how long has the drug and alcohol problem persisted in Detroit? Maybe
300 years, according to historians.

"When the Indians were intoxicated, they could be beaten down in the price
of their furs," notes John Fitzgibbon in King Alcohol, His Rise, Reign and
Fall in Michigan History Magazine, 1918. The problem was so alarming the
early Jesuit settlers petitioned King Louis XIV to reprimand Antoine de la
Mothe Cadillac for shady dealings.

Today, the problem of crack cocaine still haunts the neighborhoods,
throttling the lifeblood of very viable communities, vexing the patience of
people committed to restoring them. How do we help?

"I'd like to think of myself as a caring landlord," writes Tom S. in an
e-mail to City Wise. He rehabbed two houses in the Seven Mile-Van Dyke area
to the tune of $20,000, plus $65,000 to purchase the frame bungalows. He
wrote the mayor, the police chief, anyone who would listen to help
extinguish a crack house active 24 hours a day on his street. He watches
Benzes, Jaguars and Porsches come and go.

The negligent house was raided, but the dealers were back in no time with a
thriving trade. Not only were drugs and trafficking a problem, its patrons
blocked a tenant's drive way. He had to plead with very stoned addicts to
move the vehicle, so he could get his pregnant wife to the hospital to
deliver their baby. Not long after, the frustrated tenant moved.

It becomes harder for Tom S. to attract good, reliable renters with
unreliable neighbors who flaunt the law and the legal process.

On the west side, Marilee Bylsma, principal of Samuel Gompers Elementary
School, wouldn't let her children play outdoors at recess for several
months because two active drug houses flourished within sight of the
playground. She lobbied so diligently the houses were condemned. Now they
sit empty and rot.

"As best as I'm able, I want to spare the children from seeing drugs
traded," Bylsma says. What can be done?

Prof. Lyn Lewis, chair of the sociology department at the University of
Detroit Mercy, says the war on drugs hardly works against one house, let
alone a slew of them in the city. She suggests compassion might help where
AK-47s, SWAT teams and jail sentences fail.

"Nothing has devastated the black community quite like crack cocaine since
slavery," she notes. "It is actually worse than slavery. It strips
individuals of all self-respect, dignity, responsibility and obligation."

Lewis, who counsels crack addicts, finds a rising trend in bestiality,
addicts who perform sex acts with animals for money and show, just to get
enough cash to buy more cocaine.

"The ultimate loss of dignity is to engage in acts against one's will just
for the sake of getting high," she adds. "If we want to save communities,
we have to restore people's sense of humanity."

Jail is perhaps the priciest option. Studies show the average incarceration
costs $51,000 a year, enough to send the same delinquent to Harvard
University. A better investment would come from training, education and
counseling.

In Washington, D.C., the Center for Community Change implemented a
three-year demonstration project in five public housing complexes. They
worked with children in the fifth through 12th grades, providing
neighborhood mentors, strict homework, home computers and project
oversight. They paid the children $4,100 a year to participate, and docked
them when they failed to meet responsibilities.

As a result, 80 percent of the 280 participants, living in the most
drop-out prone part of the city, graduated from high school and 70 percent
went on to colleges or trade schools. Hardly any of the teen-agers fell
afoul of the law with drugs or other illegal acts.

This type of effort could be reproduced here, using the same blueprint.

Three hundred years ago, the wise Jesuits knew that the Indians had rights
that transcended French brandy. Who could teach early settlers about
planting, fur-trapping and surviving harsh winters better than the Native
Americans?

Today, we must employ that kind of compassionate wisdom to the communities
blighted by alcohol and drugs, especially cocaine.

Maureen McDonald is a Detroit free-lance writer whose column appears twice
a month.