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( S )PAYING ADDICTS IGNORES HARD STUFF

Drug Addicts Shouldn't Have Children They Can't Take Care Of.

On this, Barbara Harris and I agree.  But the way Harris keeps addicts from getting pregnant is all wrong.

In exchange for their reproductive rights, Harris, through her program Project Prevention, gives addicts and alcoholics $200.

Today and Wednesday, she'll be driving around Lamar Avenue and other targeted areas in Memphis with "Get Birth Control, Get Cash" signs on her car and putting similar signs on street posts.

In the seven years Harris has been on this well-intentioned but misguided mission, 1,173 women and 26 men have been sterilized or put on birth control that lasts up to five years.

That any addicts have jumped through Harris's hoops is amazing.

After the addict is referred by police, drug treatment programs or social workers, he or she, but usually she, must contact Harris, who mails the paperwork.

To get temporarily or permanently sterilized, the addict has to find her own doctor.  And we all know that addicts make regular visits to their family physician.

The woman makes an appointment, then returns to the doctor to have the birth control implanted or injected or get surgery for sterilization.  The woman must prove she's on drugs by a police report or doctor's statement.  Then she return the forms and Harris cuts the check.

That's at least three steps, eight too many for an addict.

Her clients are the ones with the fortitude to follow her plan.  They're the cream of the crackhead crop, those most likely to kick the habit.

In Harris's eugenics experiment, her clients are responsible enough to complete the process, but too irresponsible to be a mom.  She's enticed 473 women to be sterilized, to make a permanent decision to earn a few bucks.

The former waitress who has adopted four crack babies didn't do herself any favors when she compared addicts to promiscuous pets in one of her first interviews.

"We don't allow dogs to breed.  We spay them.  We neuter them," Harris said.

"We try to keep them from having unwanted puppies.  .  .  these women are literally having litters of children."

A disproportionate number of Harris's clients are black or Hispanic, but this isn't about race.  This is about on what front in the war on drugs Harris chose to get involved.

Eliminating the supply by working to keep drugs out of the country? She says that's not her thing.

Stopping the demand by getting the addicts into rehab? Not her bag.

Tracking her clients to make sure they don't go off birth control and have more kids? Not her problem.

Making sure they don't snort or smoke up the $200?

She says that's certainly not her problem, even though she knows she's likely funding the drug trade.

Harris doesn't give her clients hope, another chance at rehab or a reason not to overdose.  She gives them birth control and money to feed their addiction.