Drug abuse

"July 31st, 1981, I woke up in a jail cell in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as a result of my last alcoholic blackout," Ramstad said.

"I was under arrest for disorderly conduct and a host of other offenses.

And I'm alive and sober today only because of the grace of God and the access to treatment I had." Patrick Kennedy and Ramstad propose naming the legislation after the late Democratic Sen.

Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who championed the cause until he died in a plane crash in 2002.

At a congressional hearing in Minneapolis in January, Sen.

Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., recalled how Wellstone's brother Steve had a severe mental breakdown and spent two years in hospitals, leading Wellstone to write: "For two years, the house always seemed dark to me, even when the lights were on.

It was such a sad house." At the Minneapolis hearing, John Hottinger, the former Democratic Senate majority leader in the Minnesota Legislature, said he told a friend he planned to commit suicide in 2003.

He spent four days in a psychiatric ward, but said he overcame his depression with counseling and medication.

He recalled the early days of his struggle, when he tried to manage his illness with no help.

"After all, I was a mature male, an attorney with political interests," he said.

"And I was old enough to remember Thomas Eagleton." - MENTAL HEALTH PARITY: AT A GLANCE WHAT?

The Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act (HR 1367).

The bill would require group health plans that off...

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