Addiction

A federal judge has struck down as "frivolous" a Maryland inmate's claim that a new smoking ban in state prisons would violate his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act because he is addicted to nicotine. In dismissing the lawsuit filed by Eastern Correctional Institute inmate Daniel Brashear, U.S. District Judge Frederic N. Smalkin said in an order filed Friday that Congress "could not possibly have intended the absurd result of including smoking within the definition of disability."

Doctors will be able to start prescribing buprenorphine, a new treatment for heroin addiction, in the privacy of their offices when the medication reaches pharmacies next month, federal officials said yesterday. Unveiling a national campaign to educate doctors and patients, officials said the treatment should enable thousands of addicts who do not want to go to methadone clinics - or who cannot get into the crowded programs - to set out on the road to recovery. "This major advancement in substance abuse treatment will provide more options to people in need of drug treatment," said Charles G. Curie, administrator of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Decade after decade, America's vaunted "war on drugs" grinds on with scant prospect of victory and virtually no end in sight. Few politicians have had the courage to call a halt to this senseless policy failure; those who even dare question it have wound up vilified in the press and reviled at the polls. And yet few people in truth any longer expect this "war" to be won; it has become part of the incessant social background noise of modern life, an intractable societal condition whose economic and emotional price tag exceeds the costs of all the wars in which Americans have fought and died.

William Cope Moyers seemed to have it all. He was the son of Bill Moyers, the White House wunderkind under Lyndon B. Johnson who went on to a stellar career in journalism that is still continuing on your local PBS station. The younger Moyers followed his father into that profession and the skids were greased. He zoomed up the ladder, working in his father's native state at a newspaper in Dallas. He excelled at Newsday on Long Island, where his father had once been publisher. He worked in his father's TV documentary production company.

Every day, Frank McGloin's patients -- many wearing business suits and work uniforms -- drive along a wooded road and past a group of Columbia's tract homes to a treatment center where they are desperately seeking help to save their lives."

If these men were not in this Hampden halfway house trying to escape the shackles of drug addiction, they know just what they would be doing. They did it for years.Joe Green would be burgling homes along quiet cul-de-sacs in Baltimore County. Todd Holland would be dipping in the till at his job as a waiter in a downtown hotel. Kevin Herbert would be looting the Superfresh in Cockeysville, stuffing his backpack with deodorant and batteries, then slipping out the entrance to dodge the cashiers.

Welcome back, Ellen Burstyn. Not that the Oscar-winning actress has been away, exactly. She's been a fairly consistent presence on stage, screen and television for some 40 years, she's headed Actor's Equity, and earlier this year, she was named co-president of New York's legendary Actor's Studio. But the past four months have given Burstyn, 67, a public prominence unseen since the 1970s, when she was one of the hottest, as well as most respected, actresses around. First, September's re-release of "The Exorcist" introduced a whole new generation of movie audiences to her most famous (or should it be infamous?

George Gregory "Blue" Epps, a recovering addict and an addiction counselor whose struggle was depicted in "The Corner," the book which later became a critically acclaimed HBO miniseries, died of undetermined causes Nov. 15 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Highlandtown resident was 59. "We are waiting for the results of an autopsy for a cause of death," said his wife of nine years, the former Valerie Bolling. Mr. Epps was born in Baltimore and raised in West Baltimore. As a youngster, he showed a talent for painting and drawing.

Ladies and gentlemen, that sound you hear as you read today's column is the sound of freedom. It's the great cry of a people throwing off the chains of fear and ignorance, of a people coming out of the closet after years of a secret lifestyle that brought them quizzical looks at best and outright derision at worst. It's the cheering, so long stifled, of the fan-addicted. God knows it's music to my ears. OK, maybe a little background is in order here. Regular readers may recall a column in this space last week about how everyone in my nutso family needs a fan roaring next to the bed to fall asleep.

CHICAGO - A Chicago woman who stole nearly $250,000 from her employer to finance a shopping addiction has been spared from prison in a novel ruling by a federal judge who found that she bought expensive clothing and jewelry to "self-medicate" her depression. Elizabeth Roach racked up $500,000 in credit-card bills, buying a purse for $9,000, a belt buckle for $7,000, hundreds of designer outfits and dozens of pairs of shoes, according to court records. Lawyers for both Roach and the government said they believe the ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly marks the first time in the country that a federal judge reduced a defendant's sentence because of an addiction to shopping.