ADDICTION TREATMENT SHOULDN'T BE DENIGRATED

I commend the News Sentinel for its accurate presentation of
methamphetamine addiction treatment, "Limited treatment options available
in rural areas to meth users," Nov. 18.

Contrary to enforcement officials' unsubstantiated claims of treatment's
ineffectiveness, a recent large study in the western United States shows
nearly half of treated meth addicts to be drug-free after a year. There are
no indications that relapsed patients cannot be salvaged or that better
results cannot be achieved through improved techniques and greater
treatment availability.

One wonders if authorities' denigration of addiction treatment is but
selfish undercutting of a rival for publicity and lawmakers' handouts. If
Cumberland County Sheriff Butch Burgess' antipathy toward treatment funding
genuinely reflects his commitment to efficiency, let him explain why the
meth lab phenomenon has now traversed the entire continent despite law
enforcement's monotonous yet expensive efforts to contain it.

Conflicts of interest aside, I see no more reason to heed a sheriff's
opinion on addiction treatment than a doctor's remarks on catching chicken
thieves. I also wonder if officials' conspicuous solicitude for children
displaced by methamphetamine extends to similar victims of parental
alcoholism, mental illness and other misfortunes and question whether this
outpouring of concern will continue when no political gain is to be had.

DR. METT AUSLEY JR.

Lake Waccamaw, N.C.