STATES REALIZING ADDICTS' NEEDS

Four years ago, as 2000 came to an end, the Center for Economic and Policy
Research -- a group of five newspapers in Charlotte, N.C.; Columbus, Ohio;
San Diego; Milwaukee; and Portland, Ore. -- released a list of 10 New
Year's resolutions aimed at Congress that would, in their words, "actually
help the people of the United States and the world."

At No. 4 on their list -- "End the drug war and the incarceration
explosion. It's a national disgrace: two million people behind bars, the
highest rate of imprisonment in the world, hundreds of thousands in jail
for non-violent drug offenses. African Americans somehow end up with the
majority of all drug convictions, despite being only about 15 percent of
drug users nationally. First step: provide drug treatment instead of prison
for all first-time non-violent drug offenders, and repeal of federal
mandatory sentencing laws. Put an end to racial profiling in drug arrests."

Well, it's taken a while, and the number of non-violent drug offenders has
gone up, but it seems that advice is finally catching on. Over the past
several months, Republicans and Democrats alike are putting into action
policies that will actually get suffering addicts the help they need
instead of punishing them.

Consider:

* Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell signed a bill approved by the state
Legislature that will get hundreds of nonviolent drug and alcohol offenders
out of prison more quickly and into treatment programs. It's expected to
save $20 million a year and take the pressure off the state prison system,
which has increase by 13,000 inmates from a decade ago.

* New York lawmakers recently voted to loosen sentencing policies that have
left many low-level drug offenders and addicts languishing in prison.

* Michigan abolished its mandatory sentencing scheme two years ago.

* Kansas passed the nation's most comprehensive mandatory drug-treatment
diversion act in 2003.

* Texas, known for its harsh treatment of criminals, has even put more
money into drug treatment.

In fact, according to the director of the Sentencing and Corrections
Project at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York, more than half the
states in the country have eased their drug sentencing laws.

Addiction is a complicated disease, and addicts caught up in the grips of
it often do unsavory and illegal things. And while they must answer for
their crimes, the legal system often doesn't recognize that they need help
overcoming an illness.

Fortunately, here in Blount County, we have the Drug Court program. I
attended a graduation ceremony for three of those in the drug court system
last week, and to see Judge Kelly Thomas and Rep. Doug Overbey talk about
Drug Court with such passion and fervor, it makes me hopeful that other
systems in Tennessee and around the country will one day follow suit.

For most of my active addiction, I thought I was scum. I was convinced that
I was of low character and an affliction on the soul of society. It took
recovery for me to learn that I'm an addict. I suffer from a disease. I'm
not a bad person; when I'm using, I just make bad decisions and do some bad
things.

Any addict working a program of recovery will tell you that getting better
is admitting that we're addicts and then, through the 12 Steps, taking
responsibility for our actions. By working the steps, we face up to our
painful pasts, admit our wrongs, work on our character defects and make
amends to those people we've harmed.

I do these things not because I'm forced to by a court system -- I do it
because it helps me stay clean, and helps me emerge out of the shadows into
the person I am today. But I didn't get willing overnight -- treatment
centers and counselors, much like the ones employed by the Blount County
Drug Court system, helped me to shake free the shackles of addiction.

They taught me that getting high is a choice -- that once I'm clean, I
never have to do it again, regardless of what I face in my life. They
taught me that I can't control my addiction, and I can't control drugs --
one is too many, and a thousand never enough. They taught me that I have a
responsibility, once I'm clean and recovering, to give away what's been
freely given to me.

Regardless of what 2005 brings, I don't have to get high over it. I have
hope that it will be a wonderful year, but I know that life on life's terms
isn't always pleasant. But it beats the alternative by a country mile. And
for that, just for today, I'm grateful.