Robert Downey Jr.

Re “Set Downey Free to Solve His Problems,” Commentary, April 26: Robert Downey Jr. has been set free more times now than people can keep track of. He solves nothing. He continues because he knows--because of his particular occupation--he will be given preferential treatment. Make this guy pay the same consequences as any other repeat drug offender.

It is only Downey’s problem, until this maniac kills someone in some car accident. Where’s the responsibility? Where’s the accountability? With this logic, why not dismiss every single other drug-related conviction? I’m certain everyone will have some traumatic parental incident to use as an excuse.

And he does infringe on the rights of others--the rights of other people to live and raise their children in a neighborhood free of the influences and elements associated with drug use.

MARIO DURAN

Covina

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Thank you, Amy Peikoff, for your excellent insights. Drug abuse is a regrettable personal choice made by individuals, not a disease that strikes at random. Overcoming addiction is a laudable personal choice often interfered with by a society that pushes 12-step recovery programs and “rehabilitation” clinics as answers for those who seek the strength to resist the lure of drugs. Downey will solve his drug addiction problem when he wants to solve his drug addiction problem--in his own time, in his own way.

EDWARD C. LOMAX

Los Angeles

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What is Peikoff trying to tell us? That “rehab programs don’t work”? Wrong. Treatment has helped countless addicts and alcoholics rejoin society. That 12-step programs are “religious” and are based on an unsurmountable intellectual paradox? Wrong. The 12 steps are a practical spiritual program based on such radical principles as humility, honesty, hope, reparation and hard work. That addiction is not a disease? Maybe not to such medical notables as Peikoff, but it is according to the American Medical Assn. and the majority of health care workers.

I agree with Peikoff that no adult should be forced to attend rehab by the courts. The option of jail is always available to chronic drug offenders who wish to avoid violations of their “individual rights.” What I found most offensive about the commentary was Peikoff’s refusal to acknowledge the devastating and deadly reality that is addiction.

GAGE FREEMAN

Echo Park