Treatment

WITH HIS nebulous response to the question of whether he has ever used illegal narcotics, George W. Bush may be doing the nation a great service.The spectacle of the current feeding frenzy is as ugly as always -- but for once the "politics of personal destruction" may encourage an overdue debate about real public policy issues:Are the laws that send thousands of people to prison every year for drug possession administered fairly? Is justice served by incarcerating young, nonviolent drug offenders?

The Miami Herald said in an editorial yesterday: DARE we hope for a cure for cancer? Yes, a thousand times yes -- in the name of all who have died, suffered or comforted those stricken.It is hardly surprising that doctors and hospitals around the country have been flooded with calls from people wanting to take part in the human trials of two promising new anti-cancer drugs. Cancer, which now trails only heart disease as the leading cause of death in this country, saps not only its victims' strength but also that of their families.

For the past few years, addicts getting methadone and counseling at Glenwood Life Center in Govans battled the elements as well as heroin and other drugs.The roof leaked. Wind blew through the windows. Toilets overflowed. Private talks wafted through thin walls. A radio turned on near a space heater could cause a blackout."It was nice and cool in the winter and nice and hot -- 95 degrees -- in the summer," said Frank Satterfield, executive director.Finally, it's all changed. After five years of planning, the staff and 308 clients of one of the oldest methadone centers in Baltimore, begun in 1971, have just moved into their $1.1 million renovated home at 516 Glenwood Ave."

HIV Plus is a new consumer's guide to HIV treatment and research. Produced by Out Publishing, HIV Plus is different from other magazines on the subject, says Out president Henry E. Scott."

I'VE BEEN thinking about this little puzzle for a while, and finally got around to attempting some of the math. The question is, with all the wealthy Hollywood types who sport their red ribbons on nationally televised awards ceremonies, why are some HIV and AIDS patients in this country still unable to take advantage of the promising triple-drug "cocktails" introduced two years ago.Frankly, I'm morally outraged by this sort of hypocrisy. I don't understand how anyone can justify buying a multimillion-dollar mansion or a $100,000 car when people a stone's throw away are suffering and dying because they can't afford the treatment recommended for their affliction.

DURING THE 1940s, '50s and '60s, tens of thousands of Marylanders -- children, mostly -- received a treatment called nasal radium therapy, in which a radium-tipped probe was inserted in the nostrils. At the time the procedure, pioneered by doctors at Johns Hopkins, looked like a successful way to treat hearing loss, tonsillitis and colds. Today, it appears to have been a serious mistake.Though experts disagree on the extent to which the therapy increases the chance of cancer and thyroid problems, there have been enough studies and anecdotal evidence to support legislation to create a state panel to examine the risks, devise a system of alerting the 67,000 Marylanders believed to have had this treatment and recommend remedial action.

Journalist Michael Massing has devoted a decade to investigating America's war on drugs. He has talked with peasants in remote coca-growing regions of Colombia. He has combed through dusty boxes of federal archives. He has documented the heroic struggle of treatment workers at a drop-in center in Spanish Harlem. He has watched a heroin addict shoot up in a New York City tenement.And this is his conclusion:Richard Nixon was right.Now there's a sentence you don't see every day. But Massing argues in "The Fix," his fascinating and unforgiving account of U.S. drug policy, that the Nixon administration's approach in the early 1970s resulted in less crime, fewer overdose deaths and fewer drug-related visits to hospital emergency rooms.

Multiple births, sexually transmitted diseases and other infections are to blame for the 35.8 percent increase in infant mortality among African-Americans in the Baltimore area last year, according to a state investigation being released this morning.Through different routes, each of these can cause premature delivery, which in turn can lead to death.The lungs of these babies may not work well, their skin is so thin they may contract infections, or the fragile blood vessels in their brains may hemorrhage.

Given all the products that have come and gone over the years claiming to rid the body of cellulite, it's OK to be skeptical about the latest miracle treatment.But: There is a new, noninvasive treatment for that patchwork quilt of skin and fat that is the bane of thighs worldwide. And unlike some of its more dubious cousins, the new therapy - called Endermologie - earned approval from the Food and Drug Administration in May as "an effective treatment for temporarily reducing the appearance of cellulite."

COUNTY EXECUTIVE John G. Gary has been harshly criticized for spending $57,000 on a mailing about his drug initiative, but just about everyone in the county is aware of the new program.Mr. Gary couldn't have done better in calling attention to his administration's effort to curb drug use through prevention, treatment and education.After decades of treating drugs as a criminal matter, public officials have realized that convicting and imprisoning drug users isn't providing many long-term victories in the war against drugs.

One of the proposals for health care reform is to have a panel of medical experts oversee Medicare in order to improve quality and reduce cost. But false accusations permeating the debate have scared people into thinking that would mean a government bureaucrat deciding what treatments you should or shouldn't have, and would ultimately deny your grandma her vital drugs. Like any debate involving the future, fear of the unknown is going to be used by those who want to maintain the status quo for their own self interest.

A generation ago, former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke urged lawmakers to consider abandoning the criminal justice model for dealing with the country's rampant drug problem and to focus instead on treating people for their addictions. He was roundly criticized for the idea, and America went on to prosecute a fruitless "war on drugs" that two decades later it is still clearly losing. But last week, city health officials announced a small but significant victory in that struggle that may yet vindicate Mr. Schmoke's more humanistic approach to the scourge of substance abuse.

The federal government has named the University of Maryland's Greenebaum Cancer Center a national cancer center - a distinction that comes with $3 million in research money over the next three years and that will open the door to additional grants, studies and cutting-edge cancer drugs. The Greenebaum center's recognition by the National Cancer Institute was announced yesterday at a news conference at the university medical complex in Baltimore. "The NCI designation means that the cancer center possesses a unique combination of excellence in care and clinical research," said E. Albert Reece, dean of the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Every year, an estimated 12,000 heroin addicts are arrested and processed through Baltimore's downtown booking and pretrial jails. And there are hundreds more who arrive treating their addictions with methadone. But for those who can't make bail, staying behind bars has long meant no methadone - the leading medication to ease painful withdrawal symptoms and a proven strategy to keep addicts off of heroin and clear of criminal lifestyles. Now, that's changing. Maryland's new program to dispense methadone to heroin addicts who are held at the Baltimore jail awaiting trial has rapidly grown into one of the nation's largest efforts to deliver the addiction treatment behind bars.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - The good news on AIDS: Nearly a million people began life-prolonging drug treatment in developing countries last year. The bad news: 2.5 million people were newly infected with HIV. As new infections continue to far outstrip efforts to treat the sick, the United Nations released a progress report yesterday that highlighted both the notable gains in combating the AIDS epidemic and the daunting scale of what remains to be...

Buprenorphine - the drug that is being more widely distributed to treat heroin addiction - is showing up with troubling frequency in illegal street sales. Police seizures of bupe in Baltimore and Baltimore County last year were at least twice as high as the year before, while methadone seizures decreased 45 percent. Efforts to control diversion of bupe need to be redoubled. But the drug is still part of the treatment solution to heroin addiction. The extent to which bupe is becoming a black-market product is important as the drug is increasingly being recommended as a treatment option.

My 220-year-old townhouse has a formal dining room with a pair of tall windows opening onto a busy street. The room gets plenty of daylight but presents privacy issues. We have therefore covered the windows with heavy floor-to-ceiling draperies. But there's little wall space for stacking the draperies and under-curtains when they are not drawn across the windows. Can you suggest a less ponderous treatment that would allow daylight to enter the space while still preserving our privacy? Yours is a situation in which both practical aims can be achieved without resorting to a treatment of questionable stylistic integrity.

Cancer treatments had turned Marina Pena's once-full head of hair into a few wispy strands. Embarrassed, she hid them under a ratty blue fleece hat, one hardly suited for an 85-year-old grandmother. Anne McNerney knew how Pena felt. Years ago, the moment McNerney realized her own fight with cancer was taking her hair, she bought a wig and had her husband give her a buzz cut. So, one recent morning while Pena was getting her chemotherapy, McNerney appeared with a shopping bag kept in her desk drawer for just such occasions.

As part of their financial "wish list" from the state, Baltimore officials are seeking $15 million to expand drug treatment, including $5 million that would be used to provide more buprenorphine, the synthetic opiate that has proved to be an effective antidote against heroin addiction. There are legitimate concerns - including those raised in a recent series in The Sun - about "bupe" being sold illegally as a street drug. City officials are aware of the concerns and have added important safeguards.

WASHINGTON -- A presidential commission recommended major steps yesterday to overhaul the treatment of military personnel wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying that a system criticized for shabby treatment and numbing bureaucracy needed "fundamental change." The U.S. must move beyond "patching the system" and apply "a sense of urgency and strong leadership" to create a system focused on the needs of individual patients, said the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors.