By now I'm sure that there are no people left who haven't heard that Whitney Huston, age 48, was found unresponsive in her Beverly Hills Hotel suite yesterday afternoon.  She was long a user of drugs and while I do not know if drugs were the direct cause of her much to early demise, I do know that the drug war was a factor in her death as it is for thousands of less well known people.

Rooted in the theory that if we just keep punishing people they will stop using.  That has never proved to be the case as this situation gives light to.  The child of great musical talent and physical beauty, Whitney showed us that she had it.  She at one time, had the most amazing vocal range and purity of tone that marked her as one of the few.  She threw it all away for cocaine.   

I can tell you from personal experience that cocaine is everything you've ever heard about it, good and bad.   It has the ability to creep into your very being and cause you to give any price to feed that addiction.

How does this make her a victim of the drug war and not the drug?  The fear of public shame, arrest, and humiliation were enough to keep her from admitting that she was powerless against it.  She couldn't go to the public for help, addiction is not something that is just "quit"  it is not a habit that can be "broken"  it is a serious medical condition and even though there are people who function in society for many years as functioning drug addicts*, there are few who wouldn't give it up if it were that simple.

The drug war makes seeking help, especially in the case of cocaine addiction, almost unbearable to go public with.  Many addicts live in a world of lies to themselves.  Many truly believe that they are addicted by choice.  Let's think about this case in particular, Whitney Huston's claim to fame was her voice but, she willingly sacrificed it to smoke rock cocaine.  That is not a rational act, why was help in being treated for this so hard?  Did she fear the shame, humiliation and going to prison more than the loss of everything else?  Probably since she, like nost Americans are hounded by the guilt factor all of their lives.

Cocaine addicts are also subject to outrageously harsh punishment for the possession of the drug.  That alone inhibits the desire to seek medical help in overcoming it.  The ad truth about cocaine addiction is that in some cases the ability to stay off of it is just not there.  The addict can get clean, stay clean for a time and then with no real conscious thought use it and go right back to being a user again. 

No details have been released about the cause of Ms. Hustons death.  Toxicology screens sometimes take weeks to get back.  So, why am I writing this as though I already know it was drugs?  Because I know that smoking rock cocaine is a disaster for the body.  Had she died at seventy five I would still believe that drugs played a part in her death because of what cocaine does to the body.

Why do I label her a casualty in the war on drugs?  Simply because we have made the illness of addiction to cocaine more frightening to be caught at than the possibility of death.  Were we to be treating and supporting addicts we would not see so many fall so deep that there was no escape.  If we treated addicts as though they were ill and not just using for the hell of it they would find more reasons to seek out help in getting and staying clean.  That won't erase the damage they've done to themselves but, it would help arrest the process and make them able to live better lives.

 Whitney Huston was an addict.  She needed more help than she was able to find and destroyed her body and her life.  Too bad she wasn't addicted to alcohol, for some reson that horredous drug is exempt from the war.  Lifelong help without the possibility of life in prison is readily available.

* I do not differentiate alcohol or nicotine from any other abused drug.  IMHO that is one big part of the problem.  A drug is a drug is a drug.