Drug abuse is an epidemic that touches us all

June 28, 2006

For anyone who still holds the naive belief that drug abuse is a victimless crime, Steve Boga's two-part series written for the Argus-Courier on one Petaluma family's nightmare experience should be mandatory reading. The first article tells the heartbreaking story of how one family is attempting to survive a son's addiction to methamphetamine.

Unfortunately, they are not alone. Millions of families in the United States suffer the affects of drug addiction. It is more prevalent in Petaluma than any of us care to admit.

Boga describes a family torn by methamphetamine addiction, and meth is, arguably, the most insidious of a multitude of addictive drugs. It does bad things to a person physically and psychologically. Studies have shown that it eats away at the brain. It makes the teeth fall out, the hair turn white and the organs of the body dry up. It is also possibly the most affordable and easily obtainable of what law enforcement calls "controlled substances."

But it is far from being the only drug problem in our country and our town. Abuse of cocaine and heroin is more common than we acknowledge and alcohol is the nation's No. 1 drug of choice.

Our prisons are overcrowded with criminals whose offenses were precipitated by drug addiction. Persons incarcerated for burglaries, robberies, assaults and numerous other crimes are often motivated by drug abuse.

Drug abuse is not a war, it is an epidemic. An epidemic that is destroying not only the lives of the abusers, but the lives of families and loved ones as well.

There are no easy answers.

Methamphetamine and other drug manufacturers, distributors and purveyors should be arrested and prosecuted. When drugs are easily available on our streets and in our schools, we are not doing enough to curtail supply. We need to make the consequences of drug sale and distribution onerous enough to discourage those who would prey on others for what is now quick and enormous profit.

We also have to treat drug abuse for what it is -- a disease. Methamphetamine or any other addiction does not excuse criminal behavior. A person who robs, steals or assaults while high on any drug or to get money to get high on any drug is just as guilty as any other person who robs, steals or assaults. They should be punished.

However, we also need to provide treatment for the addiction. To incarcerate drug addicts, often in prisons where drugs are as readily available as they are on the streets, benefits neither the criminal nor society.

Beating drug addiction, especially addiction to a mind-destroying drug like methamphetamine, is not easy, and can almost never be accomplished without professional help. Families like the one Boga writes about often exhaust all their resources in a futile attempt to beat the addiction of a loved one.

We as a society cannot afford to give up. One person saved is one more productive member of society and one less incarcerated felon. From a societal standpoint, it makes moral and financial sense to provide treatment to those addicted.

Drug abuse is an epidemic that must be battled on international, national and local levels. We must pursue those who distribute the drugs, and we must equally aggressively provide education to those who would use and treatment for those who are using.

Drug abuse touches all in some form and we must all be part of the solution. We must support programs like St. Anthony's farms, which has had remarkable success in treating addicts. We must provide more and better treatment centers. We must provide more activities for young people.

When families like the one Boga describes lose, we all lose.