COMMON SENSE AND DRUG WOES

Mama always says we need to teach people social skills so they know how to
manage their lives without drugs.

MAMA says that a lot. As a matter of fact, Sandee Burbank, 54, director of
Mothers Against Misuses and Abuse since she co-founded the organization in
1982 in Oregon, is going about the country with a slide show called "Listen
to MAMA, We Can Solve Our Drug Problems."

Sandee believes that education and individual common sense can be far more
effective than the government's oppressive war on drugs.

Just look at nicotine addiction, for example. The more folks learn about its
dangers and harmful effects, the more they avoid it. And Sandee pointed out
that this has been accomplished without putting people in prison, without
seizing property, without officers bursting into apartments and shooting
people.

She said the idea for starting MAMA grew out of conversations she had with a
friend about the ways drugs had been hurting so many people close to them.
The friend's husband was an alcoholic, Sandee's grandmother was
overmedicated to the point she could no longer communicate, a
cigarette-smoking uncle was dying from emphysema, a friend was addicted to
nasal spray ...

Mostly legal substances

Maybe you notice that all these problems involved substances that can be
obtained legally -- booze, prescription medicine, tobacco, over-the-counter
stuffy nose sniffers.

Sandee and her friend noticed that, too. They noticed that a person who
misuses or abuses legal drugs can be just as sick or just as dead as a
person who misuses or abuses illegal drugs.

We should teach kids to consider the health issues of all drugs, legal or
illegal, Sandee said. Before taking anything, a person should be aware of
the main effects to expect, the possible side effects, the appropriate
dosage for the person's weight, possible interactions or allergic reactions.
Will a person develop a tolerance and have to increase dosage or switch to
another drug? Can a person develop a dependence upon the drug?

While information can be obtained on legal drugs, Sandee said that a person
cannot know the extent of risks involved with illegal drugs because it isn't
possible to make the producers and dealers adhere to any standards of
purity.

"Our laws actually increase the negative health effects," she said.

Having worked almost two decades for changes in the way society deals with
drug problems, Sandee said that lately she is noticing an increase in the
number of others who want reform.

The national discussion, she said, is picking up steam. More people are
expressing concern about problems with prescription drugs. The issue of
medical marijuana has fueled the debate. More people are starting to
question the federal government's war tactics, the seizing of assets,
locking so many people in prison when it would cost less to provide
treatment and fact-based education.

Sandee said she is starting to see more and more "mature moral outrage" as
she takes MAMA's message around the country. "It will take a bunch of us who
can really see what is going on to say: `Wait a minute. Tell me how this
makes any sense.' "

Right now, she said, many kids are dying because of heroin and "what is
killing them is the ignorance. And it's so tragic."

Improving people's lives

The war on drugs is about money and power, Sandee said. While it is being
conducted under the guise of protecting people from illegal drugs, it
actually has nothing to do with health.

Obviously, there is no easy answer to the complicated drug problem, but
Sandee said we should examine our social fabric for causes and solutions.
She cited illiteracy as one example -- so many people landing in jail who
cannot fill out simple forms. We must teach them to read and write before we
can realistically expect them to absorb much information about the health
effects of drugs.

I'll bet when she is in our town Thursday, Sandee will be impressed if
someone tells her about the new Houston READ Commission KEYS (Keep Educating
YourSelf) program that is using donated computers with locally developed
software to teach reading and writing to inmates in some area lockups.

She is bringing her MAMA slide show to Houston at the invitation of the Drug
Policy Forum of Texas. It will begin at 7 p.m. at St. Paul's United
Methodist Church.

Thom Marshall's e-mail address is thom.marshall@chron.com.


Checked-by: Don Beck