The Bell Curve

PEOPLE CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS

Some years ago, I attended a Kiwanis Club luncheon meeting in Corona del Mar
to accept a gift on behalf of an organization with which I was involved. The
speaker that day was a deputy sheriff whose mission was to enlighten local
businessmen about the "drug problem."

Although I was certainly no expert on substance abuse, I had written enough
about it that I knew most of what he was saying was baloney.

But it was what his audience wanted to hear - - and it was also the sort of
mix of misinformation and morality on which we have based a steadily losing
campaign against substance abuse in this country.

I was reminded of that day by two events last week: when yet another
Band-Aid drug bill -- this one to reform the testing procedure for student
athletes -- was introduced in the state Senate and when I attended the
zero-tolerance hearing of Corona del Mar High School student Ryan Huntsman.

It struck me in both instances, as it has many times before, how badly we
need a voice of clarity to brush aside all the hidden agendas and speak out
on this issue.

I found such a voice literally in my own back yard.

Dr. Joseph Pursch -- who ran the famous alcoholism program at the Long Beach
Naval Hospital in the 1970s, practiced for many years in Newport Beach and
has been a member of the Presidential Commission on Alcohol and Drugs since
the Carter administration -- is one of the world's leading experts on
substance abuse.

What he has to say about the manner in which we are dealing with the "drug
problem" is generally not what people want to hear.

"I'm not welcome to deliver this kind of message at public meetings because
I get everyone mad at me and lose the audience completely," he said. "They
don't want to hear truth. They want to hear truth that suits them."

What kind of truth don't they want to hear? "Well, for starters, that we
can't stop drugs from coming in, which is where most of our money and effort
is going. Our only hope is to reduce demand, and that's where our major
effort should be directed. The individual needs to be treated, and society
needs to be educated.

"Then we need to evaluate all drugs -- not just those that are illegal --
and differentiate among their addictive qualities if we are to deal with
them intelligently. By far the most addictive drug is nicotine; more than
95% of its users are addicted. I don't have exact percentages, but in
general, heroin is about 70% addictive, cocaine 60%, marijuana 30%, and
alcohol l5%.

"The politicians don't want to hear information like this. They prefer to
leave alcohol and nicotine out of the picture entirely, then lump all other
substances together. But clinically, the bottom line is that you should stop
using any drug that affects your mind in such a way that you need to use it
again and again, even though its use damages you and others, as well."

If this is true, then why do we make such a clear distinction between a
drinker enjoying a cigarette and a pot smoker?

"Because nicotine and alcohol are both legal and socially acceptable, and
the other drugs are not. Does that make sense? No. But drinking and smoking
are politically supported, and nothing is going to change that. Drug policy
is mostly being made by the only two groups deeply invested: politicians who
want to get re-elected and recovering alcoholics with a strong emotional
involvement."

He described a high school student patient who told him: "My old man drinks
- -- and I smoke pot. I'm just copying him."

Although this may well have been accurate, Pursch only partly buys into the
thesis that given straight information, kids will always respond the way we
want them to.
"If this were true, we could solve this whole problem overnight by brushing
away the misinformation and nonsense like 'Just say no' and being absolutely
straight," he said.

"It would undoubtedly help, but kids -- just like adults -- prefer their own
rationalized facts. The young man who told me he was copying his dad got
angry when I said to him: 'Your father is also a workaholic. Why don't you
copy that?'"

Given all this not-very-encouraging knowledge, on what cornerstones would
Pursch build a national program if asked to take over as our drug czar?

After noting emphatically, "I wouldn't take the job," he suggested the
following points. "First, redirect our funds and effort toward helping
individuals get well. Second -- and this is why I would lose my job
immediately -- push for distinctions between people who can respond to
treatment and those who can't. Third, stop sending treatable drug cases with
mild disorder problems to prison. They already make up about half of our
prison population. Instead, I'd send them to boot camps with an
authoritarian climate where they would be taught how to address their
personality defects and learn how to deal more effectively with life
problems.

"And, finally, I would encourage realistic expectations that, at best,
things would improve slightly and slowly."

* JOSEPH N. BELL'S column runs every Wednesday.