LET'S SEE "WHICH ADDICTION"

The week "Which Addiction?" by Lee Carleton appeared on your Back Page
(Sept. 25), the Regional Drug Free Alliance met.

His article was discussed by a roomful of people representing those
who face the devastation of substance abuse daily. Members of the
alliance present at the meeting, work in treatment, education,
enforcement and, yes, prevention. Some are former substance abusers
and some have lost family members to drugs.

Disheartening doesn't even come close to describing the reaction to
Mr. Carleton's dismissing the toll that drug use takes as "distortion"
of facts by the "Prohibition Industry" to "pad its case." Worse, he
describes as "puritanism" a culture that "distrusts substances that
elevate mood and cause pleasure."

Perhaps Debra Barr's daughter, Tish, was seeking to elevate her mood
or cause pleasure. But that's not how it turned out. She died on the
very evening of her experimentation in her freshman year at VCU.

Perhaps mood elevation was also the original goal of my friend's
daughter and her boyfriend who opted to commit suicide in a Midlothian
motel with a deliberate drug overdose rather than continue to fight
the addiction. They were teenagers.

Perhaps Mr. Carleton should accompany any of our local police on a
ride-along when they come upon the bodies (in Richmond alone more than
50 this year) of mostly young people mostly murdered as a result of
drug deals gone wrong. "Pleasure" wasn't exactly the result for these
victims. Local police estimate that 70 to 80 percent of the crimes
committed relate to drugs.

But Mr. Carleton would undoubtedly consider those figures
"propaganda."

His convoluted case comparing the United States' addiction to oil as
somehow much more criminal than our addiction to drugs has performed a
grave disservice to those who are attempting to spare their children
from the potential misery of drug use.

Sure, some folks can smoke marijuana or drink alcohol without becoming
addicted. But to glorify the use, as he did, in citing Louis Armstrong
as a daily user is all some will need to feel vindicated in their
experimentation.

And for his plea for legalization? He might want to visit England and
observe the results of the recently relaxed laws there.

Oh, but of course the campaign is part of the "dishonesty of the
Prohibition Industry," so we shouldn't believe what they say.

Complaining about "our addiction to oil" may be absolutely valid.
Complaining about the drug ads that urge you to "ask your doctor" for
legal, prescription drugs advertised on television may be valid as
well.

But, for goodness sake, please be responsible when writing about the
use of illegal, potentially habit-forming and deadly drugs.

Nancy Finch

Board Member, the Regional Drug-Free Alliance