ALCOHOL, DRUG DISEASE: TREATMENT, NOT PRISON

There are important lessons in your report on Marc Weill's cocaine problem
(Money & Investing, Nov. 22). He has a treatable brain disease. If he stays
in treatment long enough, keeps a job and has the support of family and
friends, he should do well. Relapse is possible and should be followed by
more treatment, just as if he had diabetes or asthma. That is the way it
ought to be for everyone with drug and alcohol disease.

Unfortunately, Mr. Weill is the exception. People with his problem who work
at lower levels or in smaller companies can't get treatment because most
private health plans still discriminate against alcohol and drug disease.
When they mess up at work, they are fired and wind up in the overburdened
public treatment system. There should be equal insurance coverage for all
diseases, including mental, alcohol and drug diseases. For example, all
federal employees and dependents will have this equal coverage starting
Jan. 1, 2001.

Worse still, if Mr. Weill bought his cocaine on the street, he could have
been arrested and sent to prison for a very long time. It is unfair,
ineffective and expensive to send some people to jail and others to
treatment for exactly the same problem. Mr. Weill is being handled the
right way. We should stop sending non-violent people with drug or alcohol
disease to prison when it would be cheaper and more effective to send them
to treatment and help them get jobs.

David L. Rosenbloom, Director, Join Together, Boston University School of
Public Health, Boston