Addicted to Drugs While Representing the Law

Years ago I knew of someone addicted to drugs while representing the law.  The man was well known in his social circles, well known as a successful attorney and highly thought of at church.  Yet he had a secret that was causing family and marriage problems and his wife was about to leave him.  At his wits’ end, he turned to his priest and with guidance from him, went into a treatment program and recovered successfully from drugs, saving his marriage and his career.

Some people are not so fortunate.  Careers are ruined, marriages broken, families torn apart, lives financially and emotionally bankrupt.  All of this because they are addicted to drugs yet in denial.  The attorney I spoke of was on the verge, people were noticing, his cases were getting jumbled and his career was at stake.  As he dove deeper into addiction, he saw no way out.  Yet his family and his priest, along with his friends and his supervisor, helped him, supported him and encouraged him to seek treatment.  Today he is still practicing law and he is the one who is supporting others who need it, just as he did back then.

Not even a profession as unlikely as upholding or representing the law, is safe from addiction

Not even a profession as unlikely as upholding or representing the law, is safe from addiction, as addiction has no prejudice.  However, in this case, he is responsibility for other lives, not just as a parent and spouse, but also because his actions directly affect our society‘s safety.  Just as it is important to uphold the oath of justice, it is important to make sure one’s personal issues does not affect a legal case.  When it comes to addiction, if an attorney believes he can keep it separate from his work, he is deluding himself and it will eventually catch up with him.

Seeking treatment and getting help for an addiction can help an attorney to save his career, his family and to keep himself above reproach when dealing with litigation and case files.  Representing the law is impossible to do if one is breaking it himself.  As shocking as it seems, this happens every day, because drug addiction hits millions everywhere and in every field, not just “those people” on the other side of the tracks.  Perhaps the greatest thing we can do is make everyone aware that drug addiction does not discriminate and if someone is addicted while representing the law, he needs an intervention, he needs help and he needs to take responsibility.