TREATMENT AFTER THE TRAGEDY

It shouldn't take a fatal accident to get an alcoholic or drug abuser into a
serious treatment program.

Too often, however, that's the heartbreaking chain of
events.

People with a substance problem may deny for years that they need
help; sometimes family members and friends are accomplices in that
denial, too. Then someone gets behind the wheel of a car while
impaired, and lives are shattered.

Only then does longterm, professional intervention enter the picture,
usually because a judge has ordered it.

That's the case for Roger Allen Silcox, who was sentenced to 18-22
years in prison for a 2003 drunken driving crash that killed
26-year-old Lawania Chantelle Turner of Charlotte. Judge David Lee
ordered him to enter a substance abuse treatment program and
participate in counseling. At his trial, Silcox said that he had never
intended to hurt anyone. But even though the intent wasn't there, the
pattern of behavior was. According to court testimony, Silcox had two
previous driving-while-impaired convictions in New York. During the
trial, he acknowledged that he was an alcoholic but said he had not
received treatment, beyond an eight-week class required for
reinstatement of his driver's license.

His wife and father also both acknowledged his drinking
problem.

Like the recent drunken-driving accident that left 17-year-old Tiffany
Woodie in a coma and Michael Ray Self Sr. facing charges, this case
raises troubling questions about why repeat DWI offenders are able to
keep their licenses and keep driving.

It also raises the question of why those suffering from substance
abuse problems go for years without seeking the help that might help
free them from their demons -- and save someone's life. The admonition
we always hear is: Don't drink and drive. That message can't be
repeated often enough, or loudly enough. But our emphasis on that
message shouldn't obscure another that's at least as more important.

If someone has a substance abuse problem -- and people who drive while
impaired definitely have substance abuse problems -- then that person
needs treatment.

Treatment is available -- for anyone.

All it takes is a phone call -- to a counseling center, to a substance
abuse hotline, to a group like AA, to your family doctor or minister.

They can point the way. Treatment is available -- but you have to make
the call. If you have a loved one or friend who abuses alcohol or
drugs, then you may need to tell that person to seek help -- and put
the phone in his or her hand. Roger Silcox will finally undergo
treatment for his alcoholism, and Michael Ray Self also will undergo
treatment under a judge's order.

It's almost too painful to contemplate how different many lives might
be today if they had acknowledged their problems earlier and sought
help sooner.