SPARE US YOUR 'BATTLE PLAN'

Last month, The Post did a two-part investigative report on juvenile drug
and alcohol use in Fairfax County [news story, Dec. 14, front page, Dec.
15]. A profile of my family, and our arduous but ultimately successful
attempt to get effective treatment and recovery for our son was included in
the first part of the series.

The reason we agreed to be interviewed for the article, despite the stigma
we knew such publicity would bring, was that we wanted people to understand
that addiction is terrible but that with effective treatment people get
better, families are restored, communities are spared many ills and
taxpayers save money. We thought that this was a message that parents and
policy-makers alike needed to hear.

Imagine our disappointment to learn that the first response of the Fairfax
County Board of Supervisors to the Post articles was to gear up for a "new
battle plan" that would station police officers in middle schools and
create a new detective squad specializing in arresting juvenile drug
dealers and users [Metro, Jan. 13]. We did not read one word about getting
treatment to the children targeted by this dragnet.

As an intervention tool, juvenile detention is terrific. You can ask my
son. But juvenile detention did not bring him recovery or put his life back
on track or restore sanity to our family -- treatment did.

Parents alone cannot fix a kid with a serious drug problem. My husband and
I know because we tried very hard. Jails can't do it either -- corrections
officials don't even claim that they can. It takes treatment, tailored to
the degree of the adolescent's addiction and delivered by competent
professionals, supported by families and backed where needed by the
coercive power of the juvenile justice system.

If Fairfax County -- and our state legislature and our Congress and our
health insurance plans -- cannot put new dollars on the table for
effective, accessible and accountable addiction treatment, then all we are
talking about here is a knee-jerk political reaction to the embarrassment
of The Post's articles. Parents who are where my husband and I were three
years ago will be left to swing in the breeze, and taxpayers will be left
to pick up the tab.

JUNE GERTIG
Herndon

© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company