Even Stars Fall Victim to Drug Laws: No Walk in the Ball Park for Dwight Gooden

Watching the Mets-Red Sox series recently, I noticed they replayed clips of Dwight Gooden in his golden years as a star pitcher.

I could not help think about his sentencing to jail in April and how his life has turned toward tragedy. I was very sad. Not because of what he did, but because of what the system of justice has done to him.  
 
Gooden is serving a 366-day sentence for violating his probation by using cocaine. This is the bottom line.

But Gooden has a medical problem - a very bad addiction to an illegal drug. His struggles with drugs and alcohol have been well-documented. But the obvious misfortune is that, instead of being treated as someone with a medical condition, he is being treated like a criminal.

Americans across the country partake daily in the ritual of escaping reality by getting high, by legal or illegal means. Addiction is a serious problem. But to treat it strictly punitively will not alleviate its root causes.

What moved me was that Dwight Gooden chose to give up his life as a free man. Faced with a system of justice that has little remorse for drug users, Gooden's back was against the wall when he made his decision to opt for the 366-day sentence. It was either that or face probation with the stipulation that any violation could lead to a five-year sentence.

After just 10 days in a cell at a reception center in Lake Butler, he professed in an interview that he would rather be shot than jailed again. The prison experience had gotten to him. Some might say that the institutionalization of addicts such as Gooden is a sure cure to the drug problem. We might want to get a second opinion, though. Maybe we can ask a few prime suspects of drug addiction, such as Rush Limbaugh or maybe Patrick Kennedy, who both recently had their own eye-opening experiences with addiction.

The question we should be asking is when will we as a society appropriately respond to individuals with addictions? Instead of giving draconian sentences for snorting powder or popping pills, we should be thinking of alternative solutions.

Now Gooden is sitting in his cell, reliving his crime, thinking about the family and life he left behind.

I know the regrets that Gooden is going through.

In 1985, I too had an addiction. In order to support my cocaine habit I agreed to deliver an envelope of 4 ounces of cocaine for $500. I was caught and was offered a plea deal that would carry a sentence of three years. Unlike Gooden, I was afraid of going to jail and leaving behind my wife and young daughter. So I went to trial and was slapped with a 15-years-to-life sentence under New York's ultra-harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws.

While I was in Sing Sing, I watched Gooden pitch. Every pitch he made was on the money, leading the Mets to a world championship in 1986. He was a hero to the blacks and Latinos that were sitting around the television, cheering him on. Many of them were sitting in prison, serving draconian sentences under the drug laws. None of them possessed the fastball this superstar had, but they shared his life-defeating addiction.

The war on drugs has fueled the debate on addiction. But it also has brought the demonization that allows drug users to join the other criminals who fill our prisons. Gooden, like myself and others with substance-abuse problems, is a human being. We make mistakes. But, when society attempts to lock its way out the problem of addiction, everyone loses.