DEADLY DRUG USE IS MAJOR ISSUE FOR STATE

Re "N.H. overdose deaths skyrocket" on page B5 of the June 25
Sunday Monitor: As the amount and frequency of alcohol use increase, the
physical ability to tolerate the drug also increases. Impairment and
health problems logically ensue.

The use of any illicit drug is a choice that places the user at risk
for health and impairment problems. One terrible outcome is physical
addiction, but a person can also abuse alcohol or other drugs one time
and experience a life-altering impairment problem, like a car accident
that takes a life.

The state spends less money on alcoholism and drug abuse prevention
than any other state in New England. Per capita, it is 46th in the
union in spending on treatment and prevention.

Logically, New Hampshire teens and young adults rank in the top five
nationally for the amount of alcohol and marijuana they consume. High
rates of alcohol and other drug use lead to addiction. Death from
overdose is a logical result of addiction. Unfortunately, it is not
the only toll of alcoholism and drug abuse.

Dr. Thomas Andrew, the state's chief medical examiner, is to be
commended for his attempt at yet another supply-side solution to drug
abuse. Unfortunately, like the war on drugs, this solution will have a
marginal effect.

To address addiction, this state needs a three-legged stool. The first
leg needs more support: increased law enforcement. The second leg is
in disrepair: accessible alcoholism and drug abuse prevention and
treatment programs for people across the age continuum. The last leg
is missing altogether: a constituency that understands and
acknowledges the existence and implications of alcoholism and drug
abuse in our state. There are proven and effective ways to treat these
problems, but people need to want to know about them. They need to
know how to access them.

One way to accomplish this kind of education would be to move a story
about how the number of overdoses in our state is approaching the
number of traffic-related deaths from page B5 to page B1 - or maybe
even A1.

(Marty Boldin lives in Concord.)