Addiction

I was introduced to my first fascination with coupons on March 27, when I clicked on an advert on some website or another for DoubleTakeDeals. I probably should have known better, except words that were magic to my eyes popped up. David's Natural Market in Columbia was offering $30 worth of groceries for the remarkable price of 15 bucks. Half-price, man. Yeah, I can do that, while that little piece living on the left side of my brain was confirming yet again that sometimes you have to spend money to save money.

Your editorial on prescription drug abuse in suburbia ("OxyContin in suburbia," July 31) was spot on. I live in Harford County and I know this has become a major headache to law enforcement here. In reply to your editorial, Tina Regester of Bel Air, manager of the American Pain Foundation, wrote to tell you that criminal behavior, not pain medications, are the problem in the case of prescription drug abuse. Her point seems to be that pain alleviation is essential and merciful in the practice of medicine, and that it can be done prudently with those taking opiates managing their pain judiciously without becoming addicts.

There was a quake last week, but you likely didn't feel it. See, this particular quake was not of the Earth, involved no shifting of the planetary crust. No, what shifted was a paradigm, and the implications are hopeful and profound. On Tuesday, you see, the NAACP passed a resolution calling for an end to the war on drugs. Said NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous in a written statement, "These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African-American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America.

Mention the war on drugs, and most people conjure up images of poor inner-city neighborhoods terrorized by desperate addicts and violent drug gangs. But addiction isn't just big-city problem. Across the country, rural and suburban communities are waging their own quiet struggle against the scourge of drug abuse. And as Harford County officials have recently been forced to acknowledge, it's becoming an increasingly uphill battle. At a bail hearing this month for a 42-year-old Aberdeen man accused of distributing illegal prescription drugs, Assistant State's Attorney Diane Adkins-Topin told the judge that "the number one problem drug in Harford County is now Oxycontin.

Howard Markel's "An Anatomy of Addiction" starts, like a shot, on May 5,1884. A Bellevue Hospital orderly summons Dr. William Stewart Halsted to save the leg of a laborer who has fallen from a scaffolding. Famous for the speed and virtuosity of his surgery, Halsted notes the shattered shinbone piercing through the skin — and abruptly retreats from the examination table, because he's not fit to operate. He takes a cab home and sinks "into a cocaine oblivion that lasted more than seven months.

I guess you had to be there. You need to have lived through the collapse of the scandalous Nixon presidency, the shameful conclusion of the Vietnam War, the anger and alienation that was the fallout of the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, the assassinations, the race riots and the student riots. You need to have lived through a time when we came to believe that our government was hostile and venal to appreciate the shocking candor, the frankness, the refreshing honesty of Betty Ford.

A report last week that the University of Maryland Medical Center is one of 10 hospitals across the country this year that will begin offering new residency programs in addiction medicine is welcome news for Baltimore, which for decades has suffered from epidemic levels of drug and alcohol abuse and a violent drug trade that claims hundreds of lives every year. Estimates of the size of Baltimore's substance abuse problem range anywhere from one in 10 to one in six city residents. No city can make progress when such a substantial portion of its residents are mentally and physically disabled by substance abuse problems.

Betty Ford, the widow of late President Gerald Ford and a co-founder of an eponymous addiction center in California, has died at the age of 93, according to the director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum. Ford died Friday evening with family at her bedside, according to a family member. Elaine Didier, the director of the Grand Rapids, Mich., museum, confirmed Ford's death to CNN. No other details were immediately available. Condolences began pouring in soon after news broke about her death.

I think it's fantastic that Rev. Milton Williams is sticking his neck out on behalf of addicts in Baltimore by proposing to open his clinic to more people in serious need of methadone treatment ("Pastor to open on-demand methadone clinic at church," June 24). One thing the article did not mention is that methadone does not make addicts high but reduces cravings that lead to drug-seeking behavior and crime. However, it's imperative that readers know that methadone is also a highly effective primary treatment for chronic pain.

Daniel Brannon fought back tears as he spoke of going from childhood addiction to recovery in his 40s. He recounted those along the way who never gave up on him through countless stints of rehabilitation, homelessness, imprisonment and failed attempts at sobriety. Now sober for nearly five years, Brannon, 48, graduated from Anne Arundel Community College in May with an associate's degree in applied science focused on addiction counseling; he now works at a treatment center. Brannon's triumphs have made him a finalist for the Pearson Prize for Higher Education, a national award honoring college students who serve their communities.