ADDICTS CAN BE CURED

NEW BEDFORD -- Doug MacLean hates hearing that heroin addicts cannot
be cured.

He knows first-hand that's not true.

"The idea of treatment is to expose someone to it so they know there's
a way out if they want to take it," he says.

And once in treatment, recovering addicts need to find new projects to
keep them busy.

"You can't just sit around waiting to be cured," says Doug. "You have
to learn to feel good about yourself."

While he praises New Bedford's treatment community, he points to a
need for more transitional beds. Currently a recovering addict who
gets out of jail or a residential detoxification program may have to
wait as long as a week for a bed in a halfway house. In the meantime,
that person runs a high risk of relapse.

He has been working for the past few months as a part-time alternative
sentencing counselor in Third District Court, trying to place addicts
convicted of crimes into treatment. While jail helped Doug overcome
his habit, he does not see it as a solution for most people.

"You put an addict in jail and then when he gets out, what do you
have? The same person but without the drugs. They have no money so
they go back to what's familiar. Fishermen go back to fishing and
using drugs. The rate of recidivism is high because you don't let
people know they have other options."

His own life has become highly structured around school, work,
meetings and projects. An avid hockey fan, he goes to as many games as
he can.

His most recent project has been trying to find a new home for the New
Bedford Council on Alcoholism's halfway house for recovering women
addicts.