Drug Treatment

A new study done for Baltimore's Abell Foundation concludes that programs that give heroin to hard-core addicts can reduce crime and improve public health - findings some hope will spur renewed debate about whether such an effort could help combat the city's unrelenting drug problem. Peter Reuter, a drug policy expert at the University of Maryland, College Park, analyzed heroin maintenance programs in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Vancouver, Canada. He found some positive results.

Ten years ago, a photo that showed an athlete like Michael Phelps apparently getting high at a party probably would have resulted in considerable fallout. That might still happen to the athlete who has won the most gold medals in Olympic history, who has millions of dollars in endorsements riding on the outcome. But his admission that he used "bad judgment" has been greeted mostly with forgiveness, humor or a shrug of the shoulders. Four of his sponsors - Speedo, Omega, Hilton Hotels and PureSport - released statements yesterday saying they still support him, even if they don't condone his actions, and will continue a business relationship with him. No sponsor has publicly tried to drop Phelps as an endorser.

Vernice Harris, the Baltimore woman convicted of manslaughter after her 2-year-old daughter died of methadone poisoning, was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison for failing the drug treatment program that was required for probation. The sentence was the maximum possible. During a contentious hearing before Baltimore Circuit Judge Timothy Doory, Harris' attorney, Maureen Rowland, argued that her client deserved a second chance and that her infractions - writing love notes to a male patient - hardly warranted dismissing her from Second Genesis, a residential treatment program in Crownsville.

Harford County has launched a program for prison inmates with drug problems and mental illness that experts say is the first of its kind in the state and among the first nationwide. The program will provide free drug treatment, counseling, medical and mental health care and transportation to treatment centers, officials said. Counselors also will help former prisoners sign up for related state and federal services. "It's innovative, and it's grounded in common sense," said Dr. Robert P. Schwartz, an expert on drug addiction and treatment.

The June letter from the Baltimore Health Department alerted physicians, nurses and other providers to a significant increase in methadone-related overdose deaths. The letter from Dr. Laura Herrera, a deputy city health commissioner, raised the possibility that the overdoses involved prescriptions for pain. It was a cautionary reminder that health care providers should educate their patients about the proper use of methadone and the lethal risks of taking extra doses. Dr. Herrera was right to be concerned: Methadone-overdose deaths of city residents have risen from seven in 1995 to 74 in 2007.

Nicole Sesker probably didn't die from a heroin overdose, but drugs took her life nonetheless. Her suspected murder received more than the usual attention not because of Baltimore's stubborn homicide rate, but because she was a former city police commissioner's stepdaughter who couldn't escape her addiction. In that regard, Ms. Sesker was like many other city residents - they've become hostages to their drug of choice and the illicit trafficking fueling so much of Baltimore's crime. Drug addiction remains a pervasive problem in Baltimore, and while millions in public dollars are spent annually on treatment for its most disadvantaged victims (about 23,000)

I have been presented with a 55-page report entitled "From Options to Action: A Roadmap for City Leaders to Connect Formerly Incarcerated Individuals to Work." It's the result of a "groundbreaking" mayoral summit on prisoner re-entry and employment in New York. I started to read it, and then reading turned into skimming, then the skimming turned into a glaze over my eyes, and soon blessed sleep came upon me. Apologies to the people who worked on this report and who wrote it, designed its attractive pages and printed it. But I cannot bring myself to face another 55 pages on what to do about ex-offenders who can't find jobs and who revert to committing crimes.

During the recent session of the Maryland General Assembly, the House of Delegates rejected a bill that would have given courtroom judges greater sentencing leeway for first-time, nonviolent drug law offenders - including drug treatment programs rather than prison. The bill, sponsored by Del. Curtis S. Anderson of Baltimore, would have been a step in the right direction, but it was defeated for the usual reason: politicians' fear of being labeled "soft on crime." Here's why this kind of sentencing reform makes sense: For 20 years, state legislators dictated rigid prison sentences for people convicted of drug-related offenses - even if presiding judges, after learning the facts in a case, favored lesser punishments.

What case doesn't have to do with drugs?" a District Court judge said, suggesting that all crimes alleged on his daily docket are in some way related to heroin or cocaine addiction. "So much money is wasted because it's not [politically correct] to advocate for drug treatment instead of prison time," said another jurist. "Politicians want to look tough. But almost everyone we see needs treatment - almost every prostitution, possession and trespassing case." No one in the room dismissed either statement as exaggeration.

WASHINGTON -- Amid growing illegal sales and abuse of buprenorphine, top federal officials outlined yesterday action they might take to curb problems with the addiction-treatment drug, including more precise detection methods, improved training of doctors and stronger warning labels for patients. "The issue of diversion has been out there since 2004," said Dr. H. Westley Clark, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, which oversees the federal government's buprenorphine initiative.