BUSH HAS YET TO CHANGE THE WAR ON DRUGS, ALCOHOL

IF only America's war on drugs could be recast in the spirit of my brief
meeting with President Bush last year in the White House Rose Garden.

``Mr. President, my name is William Moyers, I'm from Minnesota and I am a
person in recovery,'' I said.

Without batting an eye, the president grasped my hand and replied, ``Sounds
like we have something in common.''

I was all but a complete stranger to Bush. But in that moment we connected.
Because I told him nothing else about me, I assume it was from the
commonality of our experiences overcoming the desperate condition of
drinking too much.

I am a recovering alcoholic and addict. Whether the president labels
himself the same, I don't know. But on that day at least, Bush knew exactly
where I was coming from because, by his own account, he once drank too much
and now he doesn't drink at all.

Ironically, our handshake occurred just after the president had used the
Rose Garden ceremony to announce his nomination of John P. Walters as the
nation's drug czar. Critics within the drug policy reform movement
denounced the appointment, saying Walters' track record showed he was no
friend of addicted people. What's more, Walters has said he sees addiction
as a moral or criminal issue, rather than an illness. In policy terms, that
means funds go to law enforcement and supply suppression rather than to
treatment programs that helped me and thousands of others.

I urged restraint in opposing the Walters nomination. Maybe now, I argued
to my fellow policy reform advocates, the president's own experience would
allow his administration to refocus the war on drugs, promoting prevention
and treatment programs over previous policies that emphasized interdiction
and tough law enforcement.

Ultimately, the Senate approved Walters' nomination, after both he and the
president spoke repeatedly about narrowing the treatment gap for the 3.5
million people that the federal government estimates need treatment but are
not seeking help. For a while at least, it appeared that the
administration's approach had been tempered by the reality that America's
war on drugs required a more balanced approach.

And then Sept. 11 happened, rewriting the national agenda. The war on drugs
became an adjunct to the war on terrorism. The Office of National Drug
Control Policy has run distasteful TV ads equating teenage drug use with
support for terrorists, part of a $185-million-a-year media blitz that
Walters now admits has been ineffective. Proposed funding for prevention
and treatment of drug addiction did increase in the president's 2003 budget
- -- as did federal dollars for interdiction and law enforcement. But
two-thirds of the $19 billion the administration wants to spend fighting
drugs targets supply -- rather than treating demand.

I had hoped for a more balanced approach. Alas, it was not to be. In April,
the president spoke out in favor of more equitable insurance coverage for
people struggling with debilitating mental illnesses like depression and
bipolar disorder. But he left out any mention of the illness that his
family and mine know well -- alcoholism and drug dependence.

The non-profit foundation I work for extends about $5 million a year in
financial aid to addicted people and their families seeking treatment.
Ironically, most of this assistance goes to employed people whose private
health care insurance won't pay for the professional and comprehensive help
they need to overcome their illness. In Congress, legislation to fix this
disparity draws strong opposition from some of Bush's biggest political
supporters, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the insurance industry.

Yet treatment for addiction does work. According to the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, treatment cuts drug use by about 50 percent,
reported alcohol and drug-related medical illnesses decline by more than
half and criminal activity drops by as much as 80 percent.

And recovery benefits all of society. When people like me stop using and
abusing, we stop demanding Colombia's cocaine, Afghanistan's heroin and
Mexico's marijuana. We get back to work, pay taxes, obey the law and vote.
And once in a rare while, one of us who changed our drug or alcohol habits
gets a chance to be president of the United States.

William C. Moyers is vice president of external affairs for the
Hazelden Foundation. His personal experiences were the basis for the 1998
public television series ``Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home,'' reported
by his father, journalist Bill Moyers.
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