MOYERS INVESTIGATES DRUG USE IN FIVE-PART SERIES

Going Beyond Addiction

THERE'S a slight tremble in veteran newsman Bill Moyers' voice as he talks
about the first time he confronted his adult son, whom he suspected was
using drugs.

"He became a stranger to me In his addiction," Moyers said. "His behavior
had started becoming so erratic that 1 asked him to go to lunch with me so
we could talk. Then 1 asked him if he was using drugs." .

William Cope Moyers leaned across the table, looked his father In the eye,
and said "No, Dad. 1 wouldn't do that."

"It was the answer 1 wanted. But it wasn't the truth," Moyers said during a
recent interview. "During those final weeks of using, he was not the young
man 1 knew. Within the next few weeks, he was in treatment."

Moyers found himself pondering questions about addiction. How does It
happen? Why is it so widespread and so hard to overcome? What can be done
to help addicts recover? Is the government's War on Drugs reducing
addiction?

What he discovered Is the basis of "Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home,"
which begins Sunday on KQED-Channel 9 and will air on varlous PBS stations
throughout the month of April.

Moyers, an ordained Southern Baptist minister from Texas, said he and his
wife and production partner Judith knew little about drugs. Moyers had
served as deputy director of the Peace Corps during the Kennedy
administration, was a special assistant to President Johnson and later
became the publisher of Newsday. He has won dozens of awards during his
television career, including more than 30 Emmys, and written five
best-sellers.

But none of this prepared him for dealing with the news that his eldest son
Cope, now 38, was addicted to drugs and alcohol.

"My wife Judith and I thought we knew about addiction, until it came close
to home," Moyers said. "What we learned about addiction, and are still
learning, prompted this series.

"It's not about use or even occasional abuse of a substance. We're talking
about an obsessive desire, when something you take, drink or smoke becomes
the master of your mind and the tyrant of your life."

While some may question Moyers the journalist tackling so personal a
problem, Dr. Drew Pinsky commends Moyers. An expert in addictive behavior,
Pinsky appears on MTVs advice series "Lovelines."

"When you have a person of the stature of Moyers saying this happened to
his family, it makes it real, and people want reality," Pinsky said.

Pinsky believes that television programs such as "Addiction" and MTVs "True
Life: Fatal Dose," which airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday on MTV and centers on the
rise of heroin use among young people, can help.

TV offers information

Pinsky said television offers information without making people defensive.
But that doesn't mean that parents shouldn't talk to their children about
drug use. Many parents today struggle with "how do you say no in the '90s
when you said yes in the '60s?'

It is not appropriate to discuss with your children what you did or did not
do," Pinsky said. If you share your own indiscretions, you are giving your
children a license to do the same. All you need to do is say ,"here are
the rules and this is what 1 expect. End of discussion."

Although his son smoked marijuana in high school, Moyers said he was
unaware of Cope's drug use until his son was an adult.

In the beginning, he and his son had thought about doing a book on his
experiences, but thought that would be too "confessional." . I don't
believe in first-person journalism," Moyers said. "We mention my son in the
series, but our ordeal isn't the focus. Our experiences helped us
understand addiction, but it didn't become the story."

In fact, one of the main reasons why Moyers and his wife finally decided to
do the series was after Judith attended a lecture by Dr. Steven Hyman,
director of the National Institute of Mental Health, on the science of
addiction.

"Judith came home and said,

'Bill, there's news here.' and the news is that government policy is not
catching up with science," Moyers said.

Science, he said, has given us information that proves we must move beyond
military metaphors about fighting drugs to medical solutions for a chronic

disease.

It was so obvious, Moyers said, when dealing with his own son ' s struggle
that it was time to look at addiction as a disease rather than as criminal
behavior.

"When I heard the term 'War on Drugs," I got mad," Moyers said , his calm
voice rising slightly. "You're waging war on my son?"

Unsure how to react

At first, Moyers was unsure about how to react to his son's addiction. A
respected newspaperman from Dallas, Cope Moyers slipped off to buy drugs by
the sports stadium.

"The most enlightening moment in our son's ordeal came when we finally
realized this was not a weak-willed loser," Moyers said. "He was an
achiever, a man who ran every morning, was committed to his community, his
job and his church."

Moyers hopes the documentary will let others see that addicts are not
lacking in will power but suffer from a progressive and debilitating
disease. Once that concept is accepted, Moyers said, the country can move
forward to a more realistic drug policy.

In the final segment, "The Politics of Addiction," Moyers focuses on the
public policy challenges. Despite federal spending that now exceeds $16
billion annually, the war on drugs has failed to reduce the rate of
addiction to illegal drugs Meanwhile, more Americans are addicted to
alcohol and tobacco than to all illegal drugs combined.

Image of addicts

Moyers said that people, him self included, have the image that addicts
choose to light up, shoot up or drink, so whatever happens is their own
fault. He remembers his own Uncle Ralph, a nice guy when sober but a mean
drunk who eventually lost everything because of his drinking.

Instead of sticking to the old notions that people like Uncle Ralph or Cope
could quit if they wanted to, Moyers offers proof that only through medical
treatment can addicts kick their habits.

I hope that people come to a new definition and they realize that the
addict may relapse, just as a person in remission with cancer can have a
new onslaught," Moyers said.

It's a chronic problem and people have to stay in therapy."

As for the Moyers family, things are looking good. Cope suffered a relapse
after his initial recovery and now works at Hazelden, a drug treatment
center, as the director of public policy.

If your child comes to you for help, get informed and don't panic. Don't
scold or punish," Moyers said. "If your daughter came to you and said she
had breast cancer, you would work out a way to have it treated. The same
goes for addiction."