Drunks, addicts and the rest of us

By Darrell Laurant

Published: August 27, 2008

My name is Darrell L., and I’m not an alcoholic.

Sure, I enjoy a beer or two now and then, and sometimes a glass of red wine at the end of the day. There was a time when I enjoyed more than that—notably my years in college. Somehow, though, this never became anything that affected my personal life, my job, or my health.

So how am I different from Steve Jordon and Nick Saphonchak? Simple: I’m luckier. That bullet—addiction to alcohol or other drugs—didn’t have my name on it.

Similarly, I can eat something sweet any time I like. My Dad, who died of diabetes, couldn’t.

My first drink was a couple of swigs from a friend’s wine bottle. Nick Saphonchak’s first drink, he told an attentive audience Tuesday afternoon in The Ballrom on Main Street, was “a six pack and a bottle of Scotch.“

Steve Jordon, meanwhile, never liked alcohol very much. But to his eventual sorrow, he discovered that he liked cocaine a whole lot.

According to Ken Batten, director of the Office of Substance Abuse Services for the Commonwealth of Virginia, it’s often a matter of brain chemistry. With some people, the table is set for addiction almost at birth. With others, the so-called “situational alcoholics,“ massive and steady drinking eventually prompts the brain to crave more and more stimulation or sedation. The same with heavy drug use.

The point of Tuesday’s meeting, organized by a Lynchburg public defender named Danielle Copeland, was to try and find a replacement for the ARISE residential treatment center that was closed earlier this year.

That closure was obviously not a good thing, but Sandy Kanehl of the local Community Services Board concedes that there could be an upside. What Copeland did was toss this hot potato into the lap of the community, and a sober (no pun intended) conversation about drug and alcohol abuse is long overdue here.

For his part, Batten has been frustrated for years by the general failure of the General Assembly to designate funds for addiction treatment.

Lest there be any confusion, however, the legislature is not exactly a dry island in the midst of decadence. I’ve seen some of our elected officials in action in hotel bars in Richmond.

But they, by and large, tend to regard themselves as people who can hold their liquor—and those who can’t as lesser beings trapped by their own weakness. Why help them if they brought it on themselves?

Well, self preservation might be a good place to start. Almost inevitably, the person who drives his or her car head-on into a family of four is not some Joe or Jane Average who hoisted one screwdriver too many at an office party. Far more often, the catalyst in such tragedies turns out to be the owner of a raging alcohol problem that has driven them beyond the point of self destruction.

Similarly, it isn’t the professional criminal who is likely to break into your modest house or hold up a convenience store for a few dollars, but the addict desperate for drugs. And “desperate” is often a synonym for “dangerous.“

Mark Blackwell of SAARA (Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance) told his audience on Tuesday that addiction costs the Commonwealth more than $600 million a year.

“That’s probably underestimating it,“ he added. “Some experts think it’s more than a billion.“

Our prisons are full of people whose addictions put them there. Our police departments spend perhaps a third of their time dealing with addicts and drunks. This societal cancer then trickles down to the next generation, who grow up without a real connection to a parent who is addicted.

There are a few faith-based programs in Central Virginia, but not enough to take up the slack from the departure of ARISE.  Nick Saponchak, for example, had to find his redemption at the Roanoke Rescue Mission.

But where would the money come from to fund more treatment centers, given today’s chilly economic climate?

Well, here’s one modest suggestion, and I’m certainly not the first to make it.

Virginia’s excise tax on beer is one of the lowest in the country, roughly 2.6 cents per gallon. Why not double that? Even triple it.

I would support this for a couple of reasons. First, because it’s the right thing to do—if you don’t care about the people who are trapped by substance abuse, care about their families. Also, these people pose a threat to our enjoyment of alcohol as responsible adults. The more they misbehave, the more restrictions are placed on the rest of us.

Dealing with this is, to me, worth paying an extra 10 cents a six pack. Take that money and earmark it for treatment centers statewide.

Finally, “these people” could be anybody. A lot of addicts will tell you they didn’t know they carried this curse within them until they had their first drink. Or their first drug experience.

Outpatient programs work for some addicts. The Steve Jordons and Nick Saphonchaks of the world, however, have often destroyed the support system that an outpatient needs. They have no friends except for the people they do drugs with.

Which means that in order for a 12-step program or Narcotics Anonymous to click with them, they need to be kick-started in a residential setting where they won’t be exposed to temptation and can’t avoid their problem.

Of course, if substance abuse were eliminated, Danielle Copeland, Sandy Kanehl and Ken Batten would all be out of a job.

They’re willing to take that chance.

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