POISONOUS MESSAGE ON HEROIN

A federal "science court" ruled last week that heroin addiction isn't a
vice but a disease no different in kind from diabetes.

That's right addicts don't shoot up because they won't control their
cravings, but because they are sick. And since heroin addiction is a
disease, the panel convened by the National Institutes of Health reasoned,
it should be treated with more drugs!

This could be a symptom of a new disease itself, one that's almost epidemic
within the publichealth establishment: a disease we'd like to call
treatmentitis.

The chief symptoms of "treatmentitis" are: a pathological tendency to
excuse away bad behavior by dubbing it "illness," an addiction to
governmentfunded programs, and a fondness for free condom distribution.

The NIH's "consensus panels" are supposed to resolve scientifically
controversial issues in an unbiased way. But the NIH panel here has
overstepped its bounds by coming out foursquare behind methadone treatment
in which a heroin addict substitutes a less potent and less impairing
drug. The panel calls for more methadone programs and easier access to them.

It is true that methadone is the most successful form of heroinaddiction
treatment there is. But the panel's report says nothing about the success
rate of methadone treatment a glaring omission in a document that reads
like a nationwide Rx for the drug.

It is silent on this point because the numbers aren't very encouraging:
Only 10 to 20 percent of people treated with methadone end up drugfree.

If the panel's proposals are picked up, federal spending on methadone will
only grow though it's unlikely that the success rate of the programs will

increase. Indeed, the opposite would probably hold true: The message that
heroin addiction cannot be overcome, and that the only solution is an
addiction to a less debilitating drug, is a patronizing one and
debilitating in itself.

There is no question that methadone works better than other treatments for
heroin addiction. The question is whether "treatment" is the best way for
addicts to find help at all.

Alcoholics Anonymous has allowed countless millions of people to rid their
lives of alcohol by helping them acknowledge their powerlessness over booze
and the very real costs of alcohol addiction on themselves, their families
and the people around them. There's no "treatment" per se; there is only
love, and faith, and trust that the human spirit can overcome human
weaknesses.

The only really effective way to fight a heroin habit is to keep people
from shooting up in the first place. Sadly, the panel's proposed policies
would do exactly the opposite. The NIH doctors want "vigorous and effective
federal and state leadership to educate the public that heroin addiction is
a medical disorder that can be effectively treated." But sending this
message to kids can only encourage them to indulge in heroin after all,
if they use it and get sick, they can just go to the doctor and get cured.

After two years' worth of stories about heroin's newly fashionable standing
among the trendiest of the trendy rock stars, models and the like this
is not a good time for Washington to succumb to a selfinflicted dose of
treatmentitis.