DRYING OUT THE DRUG PROBLEM

How UCA And The Local Courts Propose We Stop Sending Addicts To
Treatment Centers In Other Counties

University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin indicated in
recent e-mails with the media that one of his goals for the school is
to build an alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility somewhere in
Conway off the UCA campus.

"We have already met with the Governor's office once to see what kind
of funding might be available," said Hardin, who offered few details
other than a plan to incorporate into the project a treatment center
in Russellville, Freedom House, which has cared for Faulkner County
patients. Hardin also said he plans for the project to serve as a
hands-on schooling ground, wherever it will be, for UCA's addiction
studies majors.

"There are many grants available in this area, and of course we would
seek legislative funding as well. But this is not something UCA will
build by itself," Hardin said.

An interview conducted last month with local attorney Frank Shaw
prompted the dialogue with Hardin. Shaw takes credit, and gives some
to state drug court programs, for UCA's interest in treating
substance addiction.

EAGLE VS. RABBIT

Shaw, who in interviews has called himself Faulkner County's "lone
ranger of substance abuse treatment," said last week that for 10
years he "wasn't even able to get to first base" on the proposal of
building a rehab center. He said that after trying to sell local
institutions on building the county's first substance abuse center
for more than a decade, he was surprised after hearing of Hardin's
intention to start the project.

"Cocaine and methamphetamine are just like a big eagle," Shaw said.
"And you're a little rabbit. And when he gets his claws in you, you
can't get loose, because it's powdered Satan. Drugs are powdered
Satan, and Satan is more powerful than the individual. You've got to
have the help of Jesus, in my opinion, to quit. But for others, maybe
Jesus is whatever it takes to get straight."

WHY WOULDN'T IT HAPPEN?

"I have worked at this relentlessly, and we still don't have any beds
for substance addicts within 30 miles," Shaw said.

"I can evidence that with conversations I've had with Conway Regional
Medical Center. I've asked them to consider a facility to treat
people, but if you go to Conway Regional with a drug overdose, they
don't have any place to treat you. They stabilize you and send you
somewhere else.

"The truth is we probably need several facilities: A faith-based one
run by all the big churches, a secular one run by the university, and
a hospital-based one if we can ever get decent health care for poor
people. The churches have expressed interest in it, but nobody's
moving, and the reason is because it is class-based. Nobody's
interested in helping people they perceive to be criminals or dope
addicts, drugheads, alcoholics, when actually the churches should be
working those fields harder than anywhere.

"Because we have a tremendous mission field right here in town. You
don't have to send your money to Kenya. You can send it to Conway,
because there are plenty of unsaved people here who need your help.
We're overlooking them. There's nothing wrong with helping people
around the world, but I understand that kindness should start at your
doorstep."

THE COURTS

Circuit Judge Ed Clawson, who presides over Faulkner County Drug
Court, said in an interview this month that he can remember numerous
debates over treatment facilities in Conway, but gentrification
concerns shot down concrete plans to build. After the advent of drug
courts in Arkansas, Clawson said, the courts system became an avenue
of argument for a local facility project.

"In Arkansas over the last nine or 10 years, beginning up in
Fayetteville we've had the drug court programs. They have spread and
are in almost every district in the state now," Clawson said. "It's a
program for treatment, and the way we do it here is, a defendant is
on probation and he has pled guilty, but in the course of probation
they're on a very intensely supervised and monitored treatment
program, and if they complete the program we clear the offense from
their record. We've got that.

"What we don't have is an in-house long-or short-term rehab facility.
Drug court is an outpatient thing. They have to attend it regularly,
and it relies heavily on community resources like (Alcoholics
Anonymous) and (Narcotics Anonymous). There is a counseling segment
of it and a segment of it handled by the Department of Community
Corrections here. In fact, the staff for drug court is provided by
the DCC. We don't contract out private entities for that.

"The legislature recently approved a system where various agencies
across the state like Freedom House can contract and provide care to
the drug court people or the DCC, but we still don't have anything
like Freedom House in Conway. The closest thing is in Little Rock. If
we had something, there are times when people in drug court who need
30,60, 90 days of some sort of in-house lock-down treatment for
drying out, and they can't get it locally.

"There are usually about 25 beds at these places, and when you have
to wait on a bed somewhere else, maybe by the time you've waited, the
crisis has passed. Having a facility here would be a nice thing to
have available for any offender, whether they're in drug court or
not, but for any offender who's on probation."

THE ACADEMIC ANGLE

Lisa Ray, a former DCC officer and drug court worker, is the
coordinator for UCA's bachelor of science in addiction studies
project, which has existed for three years. The program trains
students to be substance abuse prevention specialists or substance
abuse counselors.

Ray says substance abuse has become an illness that requires
treatment in a residential setting, "where somebody will stay for
30-45 days and do nothing but concentrate on recovery management and
getting a handle on the disease."

"Recovery management," Ray said, is preferable to "treatment," since
according to Ray, chemical abuse is akin to diabetes, asthma or high
blood pressure in that its sufferers may never again know life
without the disease playing as a personal obstacle.

"Chemical dependency is a chronic disease," Ray said. "Once you've
got it, you typically have it for the rest of your life, and what
patients need to do is learn to manage it. You don't go to substance
abuse treatment and get cured. Just like you don't go to the doctor
and get cured of diabetes or asthma. You go to the doctor and you're
taught how to manage those conditions.

"What happens in a treatment environment, is the patient is given the
proper tools to manage the disease. Sometimes they're cognitive tools
that help in changing the way you think. Sometimes if there's a
co-occurring disorder, medication might be appropriate. There are
lots of different things that can be done to help the client manage
their condition, and sometimes they need a more structured
environment than just being at home and coming to group two or three
times a week at drug court."

"I can tell you this," Ray said earlier this month, before Hardin
announced the university's plans:

"That if such a facility opened up, where our majors could get that
kind of hands-on experience while at the same time patients are
getting the treatment they need, I would be thrilled."

THE REALITY

Shaw said week, "Right now, I'll take anything, because anything's a
start. We have nothing nothing as it is.

"We have aught, and it ought to be the most embarrasing thing for the
city of Conway, that we don't have any beds to treat sick people. We
should be embarrassed. We hold ourselves out to be some kind of oasis
for Arkansas, and we are. But in this one area of abuse treatment we
are totally lacking. We have our head in the sand and we're only just
now talking about the reality of the problem."