Freshman Congressman Trey Radel (R-FL) was just convicted on a misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession and received probation. He admits to suffering from alcoholism, which he blames for his poor choice to purchase cocaine. That may be a bit of a loose excuse since he was only set up for the sting because law enforcement had learned that he had made prior purchases of cocaine. In other words, he may be more than a recreational user of cocaine, and this was not a matter of a single slip-up that happened because he was drunk. Regardless, he says that he will now seek treatment for his alcoholism, and I wish him every success in his battle with addiction.
What concerns me, however, is that he voted to deny nutritional assistance to anyone who fails a drug test. Voting to let drug addicts die of starvation isn’t a very nice thing to do, but it is particularly galling coming from someone who admittedly cannot control his alcohol consumption and who likes to use cocaine. In his mind, perhaps he cannot abide the idea of some crackhead getting some food stamps to help her feed her children, but he has no right to look down on people who are suffering from addiction. He is no better than them. As he winds his way through rehabilitation and the 12 Steps, I hope he pays close attention to how everything is paid for, how much it costs him out-of-pocket, and how adequate he finds his treatment. And, he should ask himself what the process would be like for someone lacking health insurance and the financial resources and free time to pursue treatment.
Sometimes, conservatives lack the empathy to understand how most people live until something happens to them. Well, something just happened to Trey Radel. Let’s hope he learns from it.
