SOLUTION TO DRUG PROBLEM NEITHER SIMPLE NOR ROMANTIC

The "60 Minutes II" story was mostly true.

It was a junkie's-eye view of the city. The experts were Tracy Gordon
Fox, Paul Slyman, and of course, Jessica Canwell.

It sure didn't show the town we all know and love.

Canwell painted the community -- nothing could be further from the
truth. The 12-minute episode retold, in an abbreviated fashion, the
same story that the Hartford Courant rammed down our throats nearly
nine months ago. At no time did they update what the community had
done in response in the meantime, nor did they look into what
conditions contribute to the continuation of the unacceptable situation.

I, however, have.

After personally spending the past six months meeting with every kind
of expert in treatment, recovery, law enforcement and public defense,
as well as medical emergency people, educators and clergy, I am
certain of one thing -- once a person puts a syringe full of heroin
into his or her vein, the system neither is set up to adequately treat
nor change the behavior.

In a free society, people have the prerogative to behave in ways that
are neither in their best interests nor the best interests of the
community. Addiction, in my investigation, is equal to an illness in
which the fundamental choice of right and wrong is lost in favor of
getting rid of the dope sickness.

The problem is neither romantic nor is it simple. Canwell can tell
you, as could so many of the people in recovery we interviewed during
the tenure of the Blue Ribbon Task Force, that until the addict makes
a choice to survive, no law enforcement agency or family member can
make the person stop.

I ask all residents to think long and hard before laying blame on
nameless people at town hall or in the police station. Look instead
for how your voice can help the hundreds of people working on a solution.

Our laws don't provide a separation between incarceration and
treatment, except as a legal defense. It is a primary reason why
relapse rates are so high. We understand so little of a complex
problem. It will require our total community effort to rid this town
of heroin and even longer to shed the image. But what else do we have
to do?

I hope Jessica Canwell makes it, but she didn't have to denigrate all
the people in the community that she has clearly never met in
declaring her own commitment to get well. I know lots of good people
in Willimantic from all walks of life and I work with them every day.
I am very proud of this community and its generosity.

Not a single one of us wants Jessica Canwell or anyone else to use
heroin. Ever again.

Bill Correll

Co-chairman

Blue Ribbon Task Force on Substance Abuse