EXPERTS AWAIT BUSH'S DRUG-TREATMENT POLICY

A Unique Perspective

As George W. Bush prepares to take office, substance abuse experts are
watching to see if the new president's own past battle with alcohol plays
out in public policy.

Bush will be the first American president to have acknowledged publicly a
struggle with alcohol, although he has said he does not consider himself an
alcoholic. Experts don't know if Bush will be more sensitive to the
problems of people with addictions, or if he will dismiss traditional
routes to sobriety, such as counseling and 12-step programs, because he
found simpler methods to end his own drinking.

Bush said he quit drinking in 1986. During the presidential campaign, he
told a group of men at a private recovery center that he heard a higher call.

"I haven't had a drop to drink since then," he said. "It wasn't because of
a government program in my particular case. We need to understand the power
of faith in people's lives when it comes to fighting addictions."

The president could play an important role in substance abuse.

"He can really make a difference by what he says or does on this issue.
He's a role model, and he sets the agenda for public discussion," said
Peter Kerr, a spokesman for Phoenix House, a substance abuse treatment
provider with centers in eight states.

Some people in the field fear that Bush's own experience, along with the
president-elect's call for smaller government, will translate into less
money for drug treatment. The president presides over a huge substance
abuse bureaucracy that distributes more than a billion federal dollars
annually for research and treatment.

Few expect Bush to highlight the issue while in office, since bold moves in
the area of substance abuse might stir up talk about his own past,
including a 1976 conviction for drunken driving.

"My gut feeling is that Bush will not step up and be an advocate," said
John Ramspacher, a drug and alcohol counselor at Princeton House North
Brunswick. "It will be a touchy subject he may want to sidestep. . . . He
may also feel, 'I didn't go to any fancy center. People have to just pull
themselves up by the bootstraps.'"

Kerr said he believes Bush's own experience will give the president greater
sensitivity to people struggling with addiction. "But whether he'll convert
that sensitivity to action, we don't know," Kerr said.

Bush has provided few specifics about how often he drank, and he has
declined to answer questions about drug use.

Yet in various interviews he has said drinking came to interfere with his
life. "Alcohol was beginning to compete for my affections for my wife and
my family," he told one interviewer.

In a 1997 interview with NBC News, Bush said he gave up alcohol at 40
because "I was drinking too much." He said his wife gave him an ultimatum:
It was either her or Jim Beam, referring to the bourbon.

Several professionals interviewed said they hope Bush does not believe most
substance abusers can simply stop the way he did, without professional
intervention or a 12-step program.

"The danger is if people say, 'My solution is a solution for everybody.'
People who are very religious and devout can still fail," said Hugo Franco,
medical director of Pollakes Mental Heath Services at Monmouth Medical
Center in Long Branch.

For most alcoholics in recovery, sobriety requires a lifelong commitment.
Some relapse. Many rely on continual support from others, either through
professional counseling or Alcoholics Anonymous.

Most Americans don't see Bush as a recovering alcoholic but as someone who
drank heavily while young, according to Richard Colligan, senior drug and
alcohol counselor at Overlook Hospital in Summit. Colligan does not
interpret Bush's election as a sign of greater acceptance of alcoholism,
which he believes the public still views as sinful behavior.

He's disappointed that neither presidential candidate -- Bush or Al Gore --
put much emphasis on the issue of substance abuse during the campaign. He
and many others see a critical lack of drug and alcohol treatment in New
Jersey.

"There just wasn't much said by anybody about the severity of the problem
in America," said Colligan.

Several professionals said they could not make a diagnosis for Bush but
that the ability to simply stop drinking might indicate he was not
classically addicted.

None of the professionals interviewed suggested that Bush's sobriety was
not genuine.

"He did not follow traditional means, but that does not mean that he did
not address his problem," said Bill Warner, clinical director of Blake
Recovery Center of the Carrier Clinic, a mental health center in Belle
Mead. "Many people do things to excess and are able to make changes. The
thing about addiction is that it goes beyond the ability to stop."

Ramspacher agreed.

"Even the founders of AA have said the program is not for everybody," he
said. "They have acknowledged there are other paths to recovery. And how do
we know Bush has not resolved a lot of things that led to him drinking? He
has probably acknowledged somewhere inside himself that if he takes one
drink he's off to the races."

Historians say several presidents in U.S. history were known to drink
heavily, when such behavior was commonplace, but none talked about it to
the public.

"There were presidents in the 19th century who clearly drank too much,"
said Jan Ellen Lewis, an historian at Rutgers University in Newark. "They
were not in a position to make the same sort of acknowledgment. It was not
the same recovery culture."