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Drug Detox Center

APANEL of experts on drug and alcohol addiction gave the Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democrats something to think about last week.

One thing all three panelists agreed upon was that Alameda County must institute a free detoxification center where addicts can dry out for a few days before being sent into a recovery program. Which they may or may not accept.

Panelist Tom Gorham of Options Recovery Services in Berkeley said there really is "no detox center" in Alameda County except Santa Rita jail, and by then it's too late to help the addict.

Existing private detox centers in Alameda County cost as much as $600 to $1,000 a day, said Gorham, making them off-limits to homeless out-of-work people. "There are none here -- but there's one in San Mateo County."

In many ways, Gorham is the most expert of the panelists who appeared at the Democrat club meeting, because he's been homeless and knows the miserable lifestyle.

But he also knows the flip side -- the way to get out of the trap and into a real life. Gorham is now getting a mas-

ter's degree in counseling.

He stressed that addicts must want to quit and want help if they are to succeed, and praised the approach of the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program, which is also voluntary.

Options Recovery Services program is based on the belief people have options in their lives and only one of them is drugs. Gorham said the program has rescued more than 600 addicts from a desperate daily existence that keeps them traveling between two destinations -- the place where they get their drugs and the place where they use them.

Gorham entered the program about five years ago and was so successful, he was hired as a recruiter-counselor and ended up marrying the woman physician who runs Options Recovery.

That woman is Dr. Davida Coady, who was also on the panel.

Dr. Coady, is an expert of another kind. Before getting into the drug diversion program of the court system, the physician worked at Children's Hospital Oakland. She said in her 20 years there treating abused kids, every child she saw was the victim of abuse stemming from alcohol or drugs.

The third panelist was Judge David Krashna, judge at Wiley W. Manuel Hall of Justice in Oakland, who oversees a diversionary program that puts offenders on probation with the proviso they follow a specific regime.

Krashna credited Options Recovery Services as a model for the country because it has three transitional homes in Oakland where people can live while making their turn-around. Thirty percent of the residents have their own apartments.

Panelists agreed it is crucial to the sustenance of the enrollees to have a place with support and a place to sleep and eat. Otherwise they go back to the street or to under-the-freeway hovels, where they continue their addiction lifestyle.

Judge Krashna said the recovering addicts need "someone looking over their shoulder" to maintain sobriety for some time.

MGO had good questions. One asked how Options Recovery deals with opposition to its firm stance against uses of any drugs including prescriptions for Valium and Vicoden.

"We've been challenged by Legal Aid and homeless rights groups. They encourage our clients to sue us. Some think homeless people have a right to drink on the street, just as other people have a right to drink in their houses," Coady replied.

Some of the experts' views may have surprised the politically liberal group and challenged progressive notions of local Democratic leaders who aggressively support medical marijuana.

Of the three panelists, Coady and Gorham were against commonly accepted uses, such as medical marijuana.

"As a doctor, I can't imagine a doctor telling anyone to smoke anything, let alone marijuana," Coady said.

She said the dangers of pot have been "understated" and called tobacco the "entry-level drug" that young people use as a preliminary in the progression to marijuana, alcohol, cocaine and heroin.

If the experts didn't change some minds, then they certainly opened others to a different view on addiction to drugs.

E-mail Peggy Stinnett at pstinnett@angnewspapers.com .

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