Uncle Sam Wants Drug Users to Defend Their Rights

David Boaz pointed me to a pamphlet from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that hilariously illustrates the government's schizophrenic approach to drug users, who are considered patients in need of treatment and handicapped people in need of accommodation as well as criminals in need of punishment. The text of the pamphlet is not available online, but you can order a (free!) hard copy here. "Are You in Recovery From Alcohol or Drug Problems?" the cover asks. "Know Your Rights," it urges.

The pamphlet explains that addicts are protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act if their drug use "substantially limits" one or more "major life activities," the law's definition of disability. But they are not protected if they are currently using drugs, only if they have a record of using them. Hence they are disabled only if they are no longer disabled.

In any event, federal law protects recovering drug addicts against discrimination in employment, housing, and education–except when it requires such discrimination. People convicted of drug possession, for example, are barred from public and Section 8 housing for three years. They cannot be denied job training, but they're excluded from consideration for federal college loans, and their driver's licenses are suspended for at least six months (unless their state opts out of that requirement), which could make it difficult for them to keep that job to which they're entitled.

Of course, the one right drug addicts emphatically do not have is the right to be left alone–or to keep their freedom. If they happen to be caught with a substantial quantity of the wrong drug, they can be imprisoned well past the point when they become recovering drug addicts and are therefore protected by the ADA. As employees, they would have a right to up to 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave for drug treatment. But as prisoners, they have a hard time taking advantage of that provision.