HELP FOR ADDICTS

Editor - As a physician and an addiction specialist, I take issue
with your statement that Proposition 5 "puts far too much faith in
treatment." ("A risky drug plan" (Oct. 10). Substance abuse treatment
works far better than incarceration at treating addiction and
returning people to productive and fulfilling lives.

I have no faith at all in the criminal justice system to help people
with addiction (and their families and society as a whole) without
the resources Prop. 5 will offer. I know that substance abuse
treatment, including outpatient programs, residential programs and
methadone or buprenorphine maintenance, help people with addiction. I
see it in my patients every day.

It is time to take a public health approach to addiction. Prop. 5 has
been endorsed by the California Society of Addiction Medicine and the
California Academy of Family Physicians. They know, and I know, that
drug treatment can work and we need to give our young people and
nonviolent drug offenders that opportunity. Please join me in voting
"yes" on Prop 5.

BARRY ZEVIN San Francisco