SPEAKOUT: DRUG ABUSE EFFORTS REQUIRE PARADIGM SHIFT

The recent deaths from heroin overdose in Denver, Douglas and Arapahoe
counties once again underscore that the disease of drug addiction has no
boundaries. Historically ignored as another affliction of the urban ghetto,
drug addiction in all its forms tragically touches the lives of people from
all neighborhoods and walks of life.

In Colorado, emergency room admissions for heroin overdose of patients 25
years old and younger nearly doubled from 22 per 100,000 in 1996 to 41 per
100,000 in 2000. And one out of every 12 people reports ongoing drug or
alcohol abuse or addiction problems. The percentage of the population that
reports drug and alcohol addiction is higher in rural areas than in Denver.

Compared to other states, Colorado ranks first in marijuana use, second on
the national Alcohol Problem Index, and 15th on the Drug Problem Index.
What distinguishes addiction from occasional use or abuse is the compulsive
craving and usage of alcohol and other drugs without regard for the social
or legal consequences. The choice to imbibe turns into an addiction that
destroys lives.

The Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reports that of every $100 of
federal money spent on substance abuse in Colorado, $99.94 goes to
"shoveling up" costs of addiction -- medical care, emergency room care,
police activity, incarceration, and social services. Colorado is last in
the country with only the remaining six cents being spent on prevention,
treatment and research.

Dealing with the aftermath of drug and alcohol addiction requires more and
more resources, while less costly and more proactive solutions escape us
because we continue to view addiction as a failure of morals or will and
not as a chronic relapsing disease. Without a paradigm shift toward more
prevention, treatment and research dollars, Colorado will continue to pay
the price for addiction with families destroyed, careers ended, lives
uprooted or lost, crimes committed and jails overcrowded.

Recognizing addiction as a disease shifts the focus from blaming the
individual to using scientific research as a guide to prevent and manage
the disease. Research by The National Institute of Drug Abuse confirms that
addiction is clearly treatable. We know what works and what doesn't. With
ongoing treatment tailored to individual needs, patients can learn to
control their condition and live relatively normal lives.

Observing that addiction has no cure yet, William Cope Moyers notes,
"addiction does have a solution: recovery. And recovery is possible when
people from all walks of life are treated with dignity and respect, not
punished, by their society. When they are given a sense of hope, and when
they learn to take personal responsibility for living with this illness, as
people in recovery."

As a community we tend, instead, to isolate addicts and their families
under a veil of shame and we ignore the disease until people become gravely
ill or commit a crime.

Like all chronic, relapsing disease, addiction must and can be managed over
a lifetime the same way we manage asthmaor high blood pressure. Addiction
doesn't lend itself to quick fixes. Managing addiction is a daily effort.
Just as monitoring blood sugar and eating habits makes up the daily routine
of the diabetic, recovery from addition is not a cure but a way of life.

Until we embrace the view that addiction is a treatable brain disease and
not a personal failing, we will continue to focus public dollars on the
"shoveling up" costs of addiction to the detriment of prevention, treatment
and research.