By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FRANKFORT - Charlotte Wethington is the driving force behind Kentucky House Bill 192, the Casey Wethington Act for Substance Abuse Intervention.

It would allow parents to lock up their addicted kids - in treatment - even if those kids were 18, 19, 23 or 39.

The proposed law would add a new category of people who can be involuntary committed. That would allow parents to petition a judge to commit their adult child to mandatory treatment.

That's something Charlotte Wethington says might have saved her son.

Under current state law, those over 18 with a drug addiction can sign themselves out of treatment programs. Adam Messmer, Casey Wethington and Mark DeMerrerro all signed themselves out of locked treatment.

They all died within months.

"Why would you let an 18-year-old with heroin on his brain sign himself out of a treatment program?" said Connie DeMarrero, Mark's mother. "They are not mentally fit to make any decisions."

She said experts have told her you have to let a heroin addict "hit bottom" before they can be helped. Connie DeMarrero's problem with that philosophy is "hitting bottom" for an unmarried young man, with no children or a mortgage to pay, is death.

The bill, stalled in the Health and Welfare Committee, is sponsored by Rep. Tom Kerr, D-Taylor Mill. Kerr said the bill will likely languish unpassed in committee because the Department of Mental Heath and Mental Retardation objected to it.

First, the department expressed concerns about costs.

If 100 more people were committed each year for drug or alcohol addiction, the Legislative Research Committee estimated it would cost the state $4 million.

After Kerr amended the bill to requiring the person petitioning the court to bear the costs of treatment, the department was still against the bill.

Kerr said the department is now concerned about civil rights and civil liberty issues.

"This bill will not become law during this session," Kerr said, "but we have started a dialog on the issue. Hopefully we can build momentum and reintroduced the legislation next time around."

The proposed legislation is modeled on a Florida statute that allows involuntary commitment for alcohol and substance abuse. Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Washington, have similar laws, but Ohio does not, according to the Legislative Research Committee in Frankfort.