ADDICTION WORKSHOP OPENS EYES

Drug abusers belong in jail. They're the dregs of society and there's no
better place for them.

That attitude is one I shared for a long time. As I've gotten older and
wiser, I've suspected that's not really the case. A workshop I just
attended in mid-June in Bal Harbor, Fla., backs up that suspicion with tons
of scientific data.

Research studies carried on throughout the country at many colleges,
universities and medical schools all show that addiction to various drugs
is a disease. The "social drinker" is generally not a problem, but the
chronic - long-term - drinker is a problem.

About half of the country's population over the age of 12 (100 million)
drinks alcohol in moderation, but some 13 million people can't control
their drinking.

Researchers figure that 20,000 people die in alcohol-related automobile
accidents each year. Alcohol contributes to another 90,000 deaths by
homicide, suicide, unintentional overdose and chronic use, such as cirrhosis.

The cost for that drug abuse is in the billions of dollars, when you count
lost wages, time off from work, medical care, automobile accidents,
treatment costs and more.

Nicotine use through cigarettes and other tobacco products leads to many
more billions of dollars in costs. There are about 35 million nicotine
addicts in the United States who continue risking their lives with lung
cancer, emphysema, heart disease and strokes. About 450,000 Americans die
each year because of complications from smoking.

What's particularly sobering - pun intended - is that these are legal drugs
for adults. Alcohol and tobacco use have many more people addicted to those
substances than the illegal drugs such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana,
Ecstasy and more.

Wake Forest University School of Medicine and National Families in Action
host two or three "Addiction Studies for Journalists" workshops per year.
So far, about 120 journalists from around the country have attended a workshop.

The goal of the workshop, director David Friedman, Ph.D. of Wake Forest
said, is to help journalists learn more about the science behind addiction.
Friedman is a neurobiologist and he got sick of seeing reporters get their
information wrong. He and Sue Rusche of NFIA decided to do something about it.

Many people consider drug abuse to be a moral failing, and for some people
that's true. For many others, though, once they get past the occasional use
and into abuse of drugs, it's no longer a moral decision; it's a disease.
An easy analogy to make is with diabetes. Some people may have genetic
traits of diabetes at birth, but the disease doesn't show up until they
reach adulthood. The same sort of thing is true with many people who are
addicted to drugs.

Friedman and others are quick to point out that genetics accounts for about
40 percent of the people who abuse drugs. Environmental factors, such as
whether your parents drank or used various drugs, account for the remaining
60 percent of drug abusers. Also, they noted, the fact that you may have
the genes that may lead to drug abuse is not an automatic life sentence to
drug abuse. Some people avoid addiction by avoiding the drugs - abstinence
- - and others do manage to be social drinkers or occasional users without
becoming addicts.

All of this has tremendous impact on the social fabric of the country.

For whatever reason, many people consider some use of alcohol or tobacco to
be socially acceptable. The two products are legal for adults. Overuse is
where the problems come into play.

Recently, I was at a weekend staff training session for a men's Cursillo
weekend. Another team member is a lieutenant with a police department in
another part of South Carolina. He mentioned that 90 to 95 percent of all
the crimes he deals with are related to drugs in some way. That includes
people who use illegal drugs, engage in drunk and disorderly conduct, fight
because of being high on drugs, sexual misconduct because of lowered
inhibitions, or theft and subsequent sale of stolen goods to support the
individual's drug habit.

About half the journalists who attended the Addiction Studies workshop
stayed over for the first two days of the annual meeting of the College on
Problems of Drug Dependence (CPDD). Before the workshops, I visited the
College's website http://www.cpdd.vcu.edu/. One of the more startling
statistics is the high number of crimes committed by heroin addicts.

According to the CPDD, there are about one million heroin addicts in the
United States. Research studies indicated that each one of those heroin
addicts commits some 600 crimes per year. He or she is involved in at least
one criminal activity per day for 250 to 300 days per year. That's an
astounding fact.

Georgetown County Sheriff's Department, city police in Georgetown, Andrews
and Pawleys Island and state law enforcement officers all have to deal with
varying numbers of drug-related crimes. Currently, there are about 220
inmates at the Georgetown County Detention Center. For now, I don't know
the number of those individuals who are in prison because of drug problems,
but I have no doubt the percentages are high.

Regardless of what we would like to think, Georgetown County is no
different from other places in that it has a drug problem. Not everyone who
abuses drugs does so illegally - think of people who get lung cancer from
smoking cigarettes - but that's still a drug problem. There have been
varying studies indicating that "second-hand smoke" is harmful to people
who live in a home with a smoker. Again, there's not a violation of the law
involved, but the little child breathing in smoke from mom or dad's
cigarettes is harmed, nonetheless.

Over time, I'll be writing about more of these problems. There's no "magic
bullet" to get rid of drug abuse, but advances in the field may bring help
in lessening the problems. And, too, news of some of the advances and
treatment options may prompt readers to contact members of the county
legislative delegation and Congressional delegation to support funding to
deal with addiction. Meanwhile, education and being involved in teaching
children about the pitfalls of drug use and abuse may be the best option yet.

What's the old saying? "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure