Every parent lives with the same fear.  The death of a child is something you don’t get over–there are no term limits on that kind of grief.  This Washington Post story describes a mother’s attempt to find help for a daughter addicted to heroin.  Jacqueline M. Duda and her family soon discovered that only two types of treatment are available: cut-rate therapy for people in the criminal justice system and the kind of lavish facilities you see movie stars checking into on Entertainment Tonight. 

In between, next to nothing.

“It’s a crisis,” former therapist Mike Gimbel tells the author, “because people believe they can get help, and it’s not there.” 

Jacqueline Duda offers this biting assesment.  “Since the public hasn’t bought the disease model, Gimbel says, politicians aren’t willing to invest more public dollars in treatment. ‘Politically speaking, it’s more expedient to combat the drug problem by hiring more police and building more prisons,’ he says. ‘The public thinks we can arrest our way out of this problem.'”

Voters have never warmed to the addiction-as-disease model.  Because they see addicts as weak and immoral, people are unwilling to support sensible treatment and rehabilitation programs.  Politicians learn that standing up for addicts is a political loser.  You won’t hear John McCain calling for enhanced treatment capacity even though his wife has experienced the horrors of addiction.  He won’t say it in a debate, he won’t say it on the stump, he won’t say it in an interview.  Neither will Barack Obama.  These guys are trying to get elected.