Opinion: Deal with Addiction

Tallahassee.com

Florida needs leaders who will address the growing public health crisis that is substance abuse. To date in Florida, both alcohol and drug abuse are treated largely as a criminal justice issue, but that is an unsustainable, unaffordable and fundamentally unhelpful approach that does almost nothing to change behaviors so costly to society.

"We need to get rid of the stigma," said Mark Fontaine of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. "Substance abuse needs to be front and center as a health care issue."

Mr. Fontaine, along with Ellen Piekalkiewicz of the Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corp. and Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge, met with the Tallahassee Democrat Editorial Board this week to advocate for a multipronged, community-based approach for addressing substance abuse in our state.

Resetting current policy to address this public health issue, which severely affects our criminal justice system including county jails, will take the dedication of statesmen willing to reframe the arguments and address the ramifications caused by substance abuse and its serious economic costs.

In local communities, public health groups must come together to develop models that support community-based care at every step, from prevention and early intervention through ongoing recovery. Individually, addressing substance-abuse issues will take candor in admitting that every person knows someone (or knows someone who knows someone) who has battled with a drug and or alcohol addiction.

Bottom line, bottom dollar

Although drug abuse and alcohol rehab and abuse made a $43 billion annual impact in Florida by robbing the state's economy of viable workers and production and adding to health care, law-enforcement and other costs, there are few resource exclusively committed to addressing the issue.

An excise tax on alcohol, stagnant since 1999, has been swept into the state's general revenue fund instead of being used (like money from the state's tobacco settlement) to address alcohol-abuse related issues.

Most city and county budgets, including ours in the capital city, lack provisions to specifically address drug abuse, and end up paying the price in wholesale incarceration and some temporary treatment of individuals who grapple with addiction. As Mr. Desloge said Tuesday, Leon County spends $30 million to run the jail and $30 million for the sheriff's office, and the city spends about $40 million for the police department — but how much less the figures might be if well more than half of jail inmates weren't housed for addiction-related violations. They belong in treatment programs such as alcoholics anonymous.

Continuing to operate at such high costs without isolating and addressing the root causes cannot continue. Yet diversionary and treatment programs aren't politically popular in our lock-'em-up state, and candidates or sitting lawmakers likely wouldn't see a return on their investment during their short terms in office.

With redirected funds, Leon County could better address local need — as with a recent addiction treatment program at Bond Community Health Center and Apalachee Center. Our law-enforcement officers do benefit from training to recognize substance-abuse issues when they apprehend a subject — another step wise application of our resources.

It starts with you

But legislation, spending reform and the promotion of centers equipped to deal with the needs of the addict are only parts of the solution. To truly advance viable alternatives, individuals must come forward and acknowledge their support for such changes.

Ms. Piekalkiewicz reminds us that substance abuse "is on every street, it's in every community," yet at every turn, this public health pandemic is treated with silence, shame and anonymity.

As Mr. Fontaine pointed out, with substance abuse, there is no "Walk for Recovery," no well-orchestrated campaign to battle it.

The first step to encouraging our lawmakers to revisit current policies is to express community support for such a change. It can begin with the simple admission that we know someone who struggles, and we are committed — with our votes, our time and our dollars — to changing the final impact on our communities and our economy by speaking up.

Eminem Seeks Addiction Help From Elton John

Detroit Examiner

Legendary singer/pianist Elton John is an unlikely confidant for oft troubled Detroit rapper Eminem, but Elton John says he's been helping Eminem kick drugs.

"I've been helping Eminem over the last 18 months and he's doing brilliantly," John told BBC Radio, without divulging details. The interview was taped over the holidays and broadcast today.

While John didn't discuss details, and host Danny Baker, did not pry, Eminem's drug problems are common knowledge.

"It's no secret I had a drug problem," Eminem told Vibe magazine, after he entered rehab in 2005 for addiction to sleeping pills before taking a three-year sabbatical.

    If I was to give you a number of Vicodin I would actually take in a day? Anywhere between 10 to 20. Valium, Ambien ... the numbers got so high I don't even know what I was taking.

When the rapper decided it was time to get help, he called Elton for support.

    He had a substance-abuse problem in the past. So when I first wanted to get sober, I called him, because he's somebody in the business who can relate to the lifestyle and how hectic things can be. He understands, like, the pressure and any other reasons that you wanna come up with for doing drugs.

Sir Elton John is no stranger to drug and alcohol abuse after his own battle with drugs and booze earlier in his legendary career. "To be honest with you, I don't know how I survived," John confessed. He acknowledges the problem is as rampant as it ever was.

    When you give it up, you tend to think everybody else has given it up, but of course it is just as prevalent as it ever was. And nowadays pills, such as downers, are even more damaging.

John has counseled other celebrity addicts over the years, including the late Michael Jackson, but says he doesn't force his advice on anyone. "I'm there if people want my help,"

"If people ask for help, you tell them where to go, but there's no point advising people if they don't want to do it."

Not everybody is interested in help or counsel. John has tried to help singer George Michael in the past only to be rebuffed. Elton holds no ill will though saying, "People used to tell me 'Oh, for Godsake, clean your act up." And I didn't want to know. I didn't want anyone's help. I used to get annoyed."

You can watch the entire interview here. (The Eminem conversation is at approximately 18-19 minutes in).

At the 2001 Grammy Awards, John and Eminem performed a memorable duet of the hip-hop star's hit song, "Stan." At the time, Eminem was under fire from gay rights groups because of his lyrics, but he later said he didn't know John was gay when he asked him to sing with him.

L.A. Gangs Seek Profit In Peace

The Wall Street Journal

LOS ANGELES -- After nearly two decades fighting gangs, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Robert Lyons thought he had seen it all. Until he saw members of the Bloods and the Crips -- rival gangs that spent years in brutal conflict -- meeting amiably in a restaurant.

"They were talking. There was hugging and high-fiving. It was unbelievable," Mr. Lyons said. He has heard a refrain from gang members: Red (the Bloods) and blue (the Crips) make green (money).

Gangs that were once bloody rivals now are cooperating to wring profits from the sale of illegal drugs and weapons, law-enforcement officials and gang experts say. In some cases, gangs that investigators believed to be sworn enemies share neighborhoods and strike business deals. The collaboration even crosses racial lines, remarkable in a gang world where racial divisions are sharp and clashes are often racially motivated.

"You see African-Americans dealing with Hispanics on obtaining narcotics and weapons. We're seeing Hispanic gang members involved with the Eastern European criminal figures," said Robert W. Clark, acting special agent in charge of the criminal division of the Los Angeles field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "Where they see opportunities to collaborate, they do."

Gang activity has been one of the most intractable crime problems facing Southern California for decades, terrorizing communities, claiming hundreds of lives a year in some periods and also breeding a nexus of criminal activity that has been exported to other communities. Los Angeles, along with Chicago, has long been considered one of the centers of gang activity in the U.S.

But gang-related violence is at a 30-year low in Los Angeles, according to experts. Gang-related homicides in Los Angeles totaled 128 in through October of this year, compared with 312 in all of 2002. All reported gang-related crimes, including rape, assault and robberies, totaled 4,899 through October, compared with 7,432 in 2002.

The sharp drop is undoubtedly a landmark success for law-enforcement officials and policy makers, who have used aggressive policing and rehabilitation programs to tackle the problem. But the reports of alliances between formerly warring gangs potentially offers a different explanation: Gangs are committing less violence because they are partnering on criminal activity, creating new challenges for law enforcement.

"Now, instead of having 200 guys that are arch-enemies with 200 other guys, you have 400 guys working together against law enforcement," said the sheriff's detective, Mr. Lyons.

There are still plenty of rivalries and violence. One Los Angeles-area Latino gang, Barrio Hawaiian Gardens, was charged this spring with hate crimes against African-Americans -- including targeted shootings.

Tracking the number of gang members is notoriously tricky, and membership is fluid. But a November report from the California Gang Node Advisory Committee, which attempts to track gang membership, put the number of gang members at 85,832 in Los Angeles County, up slightly from recent years.

And the number of gang members has been on the upswing nationally. There were about one million gang members in the U.S. in 2008, up from 800,000 in 2005, according to the National Gang Threat Assessment, compiled by the National Gang Intelligence Center and the National Drug Intelligence Center.

Some regions of the country -- like New England, with 640 gangs -- are seeing an increase in violence and substance abuse as gangs grow and fight for control of neighborhoods and the drug trade, the report said. But there is cohesion in other regions, like Washington and Oregon, where "alliances between gangs may result in the expansion of criminal networks and increased criminal activity in the Northwest Region," the report says.

In Los Angeles, federal and local law-enforcement agencies have launched massive investigations and raids against gangs. In 2009, law-enforcement officials arrested more than 650 gang members in Southern California, according to the FBI.

City officials also credit gang-prevention and rehabilitation programs for the drop in crime. Gang intervention workers -- often former gang members -- work alongside police to prevent retaliatory shootings. Homeboy Industries, a privately funded gang-rehabilitation program in Los Angeles, serves around 12,000 people a year who have left gangs, providing job training, counseling and laser tattoo removal. And the mayor's office has sponsored activities like basketball games and picnics among neighborhoods that are home to feuding gangs.

But intensifying pressure from police has also prompted gangs to work together, said Jorja Leap, a University of California, Los Angeles professor and gang expert. "They really are united against what they perceive to be a common enemy -- law enforcement," said Ms. Leap, who now advises Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca on gangs.

Ms. Leap said gangs form links to survive -- and to maximize profits. "The market is tougher and they're consolidating," she said.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said gangs are "treating their activities more like businesses than before. In business, you work with whoever you have to."

This collaboration can make tracking gang crime and dismantling gangs more complicated. Members of street gangs are showing up unexpectedly in health-care and credit-card fraud investigations, which have traditionally been run by Eastern European crime rings.

During a two-year investigation of the Athens Park Bloods, an African-American gang entrenched in south Los Angeles, investigators learned the members had formed a pact with a Hispanic gang called Barrio 13. Eventually, 22 people were charged -- 20 African-Americans and two Hispanics.

"They shared the same guns, the same narcotics, the same neighborhood," said Mr. Lyons, the sheriff's detective.