Drug Addiction

Re “Drug Fears Fuel Fury in Provence,” Dec. 15: I adamantly disagree with Andre Verlaque that murder of his allegedly drug-addicted son was his last option. However, I do agree with his statement that parents “should try, at all costs, to make peace with their child before something like this happens.”

I have helplessly watched someone I love destroy himself for the last several years with drugs and alcohol. Yet, rather than resort to violence as a way to vent out my frustration, I quietly explained to him six months ago that I wanted “peace” and that I had set up a trust fund so that he would have money to get professional help and start a new life free of drugs.

Parents can set up similar trust funds for their troubled child as an incentive to seek recovery, attend meetings such as Al-Anon in which they can discuss solutions with other parents in a similar situation and encourage their child to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

Drug addiction is a family disease that often is passed down from generation to generation, and as such, it is not the addict that needs to be eliminated, but the under-lying family problems that had led up to the child’s dependency on drugs. DES MANTTARI Los Angeles