In the headlines recently was the story of a gun battle south of Nogales, Mexico. The story recounted that innocent people were shot in a battle between rival drug and smuggling. Another story in another publication told of a Jamaican drug lord who had been brought to New York after 73 people died trying to protect him from extradition. In our world today these are not unusual stories. Over and over we read about the casualties of so-called "drug wars".

These kinds of stories always bring a cry from politicians for more enforcement. Another political group will cry out for tougher laws on drug smugglers and drug dealers. Somehow this approach has never worked. Since I was a boy in the 1950s these kinds of stories have appeared over and over.

Yet drugs are readily available in any city in our country. That's why we should legalize drugs as soon as possible.

Good, law-abiding citizen blanch at the idea of legalizing drugs. They say that legalization will encourage more people to use drugs. But that's a myth. In countries that have partial or full legalization there are fewer drug users than there are here in the United States. What many people don't seem to realize, is that our country has de facto legalization as it is. There never seems to be a shortage of drugs in our neighborhoods or cities. One just has to ask a few questions and he can find drugs in any town.

So if drugs are readily available, anyway, what would it hurt if we legalize them? If we made good clean drugs readily available one important thing would happen immediately. The murderous criminal drug cartels that thrive South of our border would have to find new markets for their poison. There would be no point in buying their adulterated product when safe clean drugs were available here in our country.

Another immediate benefit would be a reduction in the cost of law enforcement. Vast sums are spent policing drug traffic. Besides saving money on enforcement, our country would save money on the cost of prosecuting and warehousing drug offenders. Now many people don't see that as a good thing because all of a sudden many people would be out of work. But there is an upside to all of this. The money that had previously been spent on enforcement could be directed toward treatment.

Because I manage one of the larger recovery programs in the United States, many people might find my view hypocritical. But I don't view the problem as the easy availability of drugs. I view the problem has been the fact some people suffer from deadly addictions. One way or the other, addicts and alcoholics find a way to feed their disease. Availability is not the key factor.

It is time that to overhaul our counterproductive drug laws. In 50 years the situation has not gotten better. How can we not recognize that enforcement isn't working? Our so-called drug problem has remained static all that time.

By treating addiction as a crime - rather than a disease - we've created a criminal subculture. Many of its inhabitants live a dubious existence in the lower tier of our society.

The client in our employment center debriefing group was very negative about his chances of finding employment. He had sleeves tattooed on his arms and a few small ones on his face.

"No one wants to hire me because of my tattoos," he said dejectedly.

The manager pointed out that his inability to find work likely had more to do with his attitude than with his tattoos. He gave several examples of clients at our various facilities who had many more tattoos, but who had found employment. He went on to describe one client who was at our Roosevelt facility last year who had a tattoo of a knife slash across his throat. It was a very graphic depiction of a wound that had red blood seeping from it. The manager of the center believed this man would have difficulty finding employment anywhere outside of a carnival sideshow or a tattoo parlor. Yet his enthusiasm was so infectious he landed job the first day he started looking.

The manager went around the circle of 15 clients and asked each to share their job search experiences that day. Some mentioned sore feet, others talked with little enthusiasm about the applications they'd put in. Some were downright dejected. And a few said they had obtained initial interviews that might lead to employment within a few days. There was a mixed response, but most of it seemed to be about attitude.

And the interesting thing is that two days later the client who was so negative about his tattoos found employment. Maybe the manager's talk did some good.

It's easy to work the 12 step programs when times are good. When we have a great job, a good relationship, and life is wonderful our program goes smoothly. But I believe that when times are tough we learn how much we have really absorbed of the 12 steps.

This was brought to my attention recently when two friends of mine, one who sponsored the other, had a crisis in their relationship. The one who acted as a sponsor was also the sponsee's supervisor. Because of a recent turn-down in his company's fortunes, the supervisor had to terminate the sponsee. At first it appeared as though they were going to be able to continue the sponsor/sponsee relationship. But for several days after the termination the sponsee didn't call the sponsor. And when he did finally call, it was to terminate their relationship. The sponsor hasn't heard from him since.

Relationships are so sensitive for us substance abusers. We get our feelings hurt easily. When a real crisis arises in our relationships we often don't know how to deal with it. Relationships can be difficult for anyone, especially those of us in recovery. But it can be especially difficult when our lives are intertwined in other ways. An employer-employee relationship, where one sponsors the other, can be traumatic if the relationship changes. If one of is terminated, or if one of them gets drunk, then it complicates the other aspects of their relationship.

Of course life is impermanent at best. The economy changes, business changes, relationships change. Hopefully we stay sober through the changes.

The aftercare group assignment was to finish the sentence, "you can tell I'm getting ready to relapse when I..."

A couple of clients in the group groaned when they heard the topic. They knew the structure of the sentence didn't give them much wiggle room. But it made for an interesting group.

The first client who shared gave the usual boilerplate answers. He said that he last relapsed when he quit going to meetings, started hanging out with negative people, and began focusing on things other than recovery. Another client mentioned that when he quit doing the things that he did when he first got sober he knew he was on the path to relapse.

An interesting aspect of the group was when three of the members mentioned that they didn't have a lot to share because they had never relapsed. It was their first time trying to get sober and the only thing they knew about relapse was what they'd heard in meetings or from their sponsors.

Later an older man, a chronic alcoholic who had relapsed many times, shared how he knew when he was ready to relapse. He said that before he relapsed he often looked around and that other situations looked better than the one he was in. He said that even though he was once married to a beautiful woman, he would find other women more beautiful. He said that when he was married he was envious of his unmarried children. He said that when he was divorced and living alone he was jealous of those who were married. He said he had a great job but that he was dissatisfied with it. And eventually that dissatisfaction ended in a fight with a co-worker and resulted in his termination. No matter where he was in life it seemed like he was never content. And this lack of contentment and acceptance led him back to alcohol over and over.

A client who also had relapsed many times suggested that this man get more involved in service work. He thought if the man did service work he'd spend less time comparing his situation with others. He pointed out that when we are never satisfied it might have something to do with a spiritual vacuum within us.

Another client suggested the man look around, not only at those who he perceived as having it better than him, but also at those who have less. He pointed out that we can always find someone to envy or a situation to covet. But on the other end of the spectrum we can see those who are suffering and have less than us.

Our job is to find balance and realize that in God's world we are exactly where we're supposed to be at the moment.

One day several years ago one of our new clients was assigned to help paint an empty room at one of our facilities. The man, who had been sober for only a few days, was not happy about the assignment. He took his time while doing the job and was not all interested in the project. Finally the crew leader asked what was going on with him.

"I just don't understand what this job has to do with recovery," the client said.

"You're not drinking or drugging are you?" asked the crew leader.

"Of course not," responded the client.

"Well if you're not using right now," said the crew leader, "then you're working on your recovery."

The crew leader, a client of our program who'd been in recovery for a while, was making the point that recovery is not always about being in a group, or in a counseling session. For those of us at TLC one of the primary components of recovery is getting some time clean and sober. We believe that it takes time for us to clear our heads and start feeling good again. Doing chores and maintenance around the facility is a small step toward helping our clients build self-esteem.

Normally after three days, once a new client has completed his orientation into the program, he goes out on his own looking for employment. With three days of positive activity under his belt it is more likely that he will develop the confidence to look for a job.

One of the strong points of our program is that it consists of addicts helping other addicts. Sometimes alcoholics and addicts resent having professionals tell them what to do. After all many of them have been rebels for much of their life. But when another addict tells them how they stayed sober for a month, six months, or a year, the newcomer finds an example he can use in his own life.

To me, that's what peer counseling is all about.

One of the biggest, most gratifying, payoffs comes when we hear from graduates who have stayed sober for a long time.

This weekend I received an e-mail from a man who was at TLC 18 years ago. His message said in part that he had just gone to a meeting "where I received my 18 year chip and talked about my experiences at TLC. I celebrated 18 years of sobriety yesterday that started at EVAC and led me to TLC 18 years ago." He added that we didn't think he'd last a week.

His message was full of promises come true. He's been married 12 years, his family connections are great, and he's had the same good job for 13 years. He finished with "everything is going well."

Prior to his decline into alcoholism this man was a professional who worked for a large public corporation. At one time he had a well-paid position with this company and all of the perquisites. He had a college education and every expectation that things would always go his way. However, alcohol brought him down. Shortly before he came to TLC he was living behind a convenience store dumpster not knowing what to do next.

It's wonderful to receive messages like this from former clients. When we see people whose lives have been dramatically changed, who have escaped from the ravages of drugs and alcohol, it makes everything just that much more worthwhile.

Yesterday I was talking to a couple of our employees, both in recovery, about their plans for Halloween. Both were raising young children and decided to get the kids together for Halloween. In both cases, our employees had progressed from being incarcerated for drug offenses to being responsible parents after spending a few years at TLC.

Stories like this do my heart good. The parents involved in planning the celebration are living examples of what it means to be in recovery. A few years ago a plan like this would've been out of the question.

One of the payoffs of being in the recovery business is witnessing positive changes in the lives of former clients. Nothing is more satisfying to me than when I see recovering addicts acting like so-called "normal" people.

Often I explain to my employees that their sobriety, and the sobriety they help bring to the lives of others has a long-term effect. I believe that sober parents are a powerful influence in raising sober children. For the past 20 years I've listened to stories from clients who claimed their first experience with drugs or alcohol involved their parents. If their parents didn't provide the drugs or alcohol directly, they provided a bad example by their own addictions.

Conversely, parents who live right provide a good example for their children. Not only do the parents provide a good example, they can also recognize the beginnings of addiction in their kids and get them help.