July/August,
2001
Hooked: Five Addicts Challenge Our Misguided
Drug Rehab System. By
Lonny Shavelson. The New Press. $24.95.
If drug addiction is a frightening proposition, so is the
process of kicking a habit. For three years, journalist and physician Lonny
Shavelson immersed himself in the bowels of San Francisco, tracking five people
from the streets through a series of rehabilitation programs—and back again.
His subjects represent a diverse range of personalities and treatment issues:
from Darlene, the schizophrenic speed freak, to Crystal, a fast-talking crack
addict. But most compelling is Mike Pagsolingan, a charismatic plumber who was
sexually abused as a child.
The book opens with Mike shooting heroin while
driving his car down California Highway 101. Shavelson follows him to a
prestigious rehab house called Walden, where recovering addicts adopt a
militaristic lifestyle geared to help them control their drug urges. For a time,
Mike seems a model pupil, but Walden eventually kicks him out for a series of
behavior infractions. He lapses back into heroin use; and by the end of the
narrative he faces 25 years in prison. Mike's story illustrates Shavelson's
critique of the rehab world. First, too many clinics boot addicts for relapsing,
essentially giving up on the hardest cases. Second, drug-treatment programs
often ignore deeper psychological issues, like Mike's childhood sexual abuse.
Finally, treatment by humiliation—Walden's method of choice—earns sharp
reproof. Shavelson tells his story with compassion, even overstepping
journalistic boundaries to befriend his subjects. He has plenty of vitriol,
however, for Byzantine bureaucracies that confound addicts seeking help and a
federal government that spends more money fighting Latin American drug lords
than treating addicts at home. --Keith Meatto