Pubdate: Thu, 14 Dec 2000
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Copyright: 2000 The Daily Herald Company
Contact:  http://www.dailyherald.com/
Author: Shamus Toomey

STUDY KNOCKS LACK OF FUNDS FOR DRUG FIGHT

Governmental bodies in Cook County spend four times as much money on drug
enforcement than they do on drug treatment and prevention, yet illegal drug
use continues to rise, according to a new study to be released today.

Of the nearly $1.2 billion spent by federal, state and local governments to
combat drugs locally in 1997 - the most recent year analyzed - some $976
million went to arrest, incarcerate and prosecute. The remainder went to
treatment and prevention, according to the three-year study done by
Roosevelt University's Institute for Metropolitan Affairs.

The study notes that Cook County residents younger than 18 increasingly used
illicit drugs, particularly marijuana, from 1990 to 1997. In 1990, 24.4
percent of those county residents had tried drugs, the study reports. That
number went up to 41.9 percent in 1997. The figures mirror national trends,
according to the report.

"If it's going to be illegal, you need interdiction efforts at some level,"
said James Lewis, director of the Institute for Metropolitan Affairs. "But
it's clear there hasn't been a significant decrease in usage."

The study clearly comes down on the side of battling the demand for illegal
drugs instead of the supply, Lewis said.

"Unless you get after the treatment issues, the addiction issues and, for
younger people, the social issues, I don't think you're getting to the heart
of the problem," Lewis said.

The study also found that drug treatment around the county is fragmented,
with some involved in administering programs saying they are inconsistently
funded, poorly planned and not well integrated.

One potential reason, the study concludes, is the public perception of drug
users.

"There is not uniform acceptance that addiction is a chronic relapsing
disease and, as with other chronic diseases, requires extensive, sometime
lifelong treatment," according to the report. "The prevailing view is that
drug and alcohol use is a voluntary activity and that one can stop anytime
if one has the discipline to do so. It is hard for people to understand that
... as a person becomes addicted, use is no longer voluntary."

The view of drug and alcohol abuse as less than a chronic disease leads to
punitive tactics to fight it that are "more focused on punishing the addict
than on treating the underlying disease," according to the report.

The study's authors - Brian K. Edwards, Lee R. Hamilton, Sharon L. Hermanns
and David L. Rubin - hope the collection and presentation of the data will
spark new discussions on what should be done to address drug use.

"All of this information is relevant for the policy makers who will be
looking at drug issues in the future," Hermanns said.

Recommendations made include expanding and improving treatment programs,
establishing better communication between treatment centers, better training
of health-care workers on how to manage addicts and better education of
policy makers on the nature of addiction.
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