Pubdate: Sun, 11 Feb 2001
Source: Roanoke Times (VA)
Copyright: 2001 Roanoke Times
Contact:  201 W. Campbell Ave., Roanoke, Va. 24010
Website: http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/
Author: Ron Fraser
Note: Ron Fraser of Burke writes on public policy issues for the DKT 
Liberty Project, a Washington-based nonprofit, civil-liberties organization.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

DON'T PUNISH DRUG ABUSERS, TREAT THEM

Rigid Policies Are Counterproductive

IF ATTORNEY General John Ashcroft wants to put as many drug-law violators 
as possible behind bars and provide treatment to as few as possible, he 
will simply fall in love with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area 
program run by President George W. Bush's yet-to-be-named drug czar.

In 1997 Ashcroft summed up his drug policy this way: "A government which 
takes the resources that we would devote toward the interdiction of drugs 
and converts them to treatment resources ... and also implements a 
clean-needle program is a government that accommodates us at our lowest and 
least instead of calls us to our highest and best."

The new administration may be looking for a way to spread Washington's 
rigid, punitive drug-enforcement policies to state and local police 
agencies. If so, the HIDTA program is an ideal vehicle. The program's 
advertised goal is to increase the ability of state and local police 
departments to catch drug traffickers.

Each HIDTA is run by a committee made up of eight federal and eight state 
or local members. These committees plan operations and spend at least $200 
million a year on extra police officers, surveillance equipment and travel 
expenses. Last year, the Appalachia HIDTA budget for Kentucky, West 
Virginia, Tennessee and Virginia was $6 million.

The HIDTA program looks a lot like what folks in Washington call political 
engineering. To build support for the drug war among 535 members of 
Congress, this program makes sure people living in every corner of the 
country think they have a big drug problem. These voters will, of course, 
call for action. Local elected representatives can then come to the rescue, 
pointing to the HIDTA program as proof of their responsiveness.

That Washington bankrolls the whole program makes it all the more 
attractive to state and local officials. Today, 41 states have active HIDTA 
programs.

But watch out, governors and mayors. The HIDTA program could do a lot of 
unexpected harm:

Misguided Enforcement.

At first glance, the HIDTA program appears successful. For example, the 
share of inmates in state prisons held on trafficking charges, as opposed 
to possession, increased to 70 percent in 1997, up from 56 percent in 1986.

But this statistic masks a warning sign. The total number of state inmates 
held for drug offenses skyrocketed from 41,000 in 1986 to 220,000 in 1997. 
While trafficking convictions increased, the number of inmates serving time 
for drug possession between 1986 and 1997 went up fourfold, from 14,000 to 
59,000 - putting behind bars thousands of people who really need treatment 
instead.

As state and local police agencies, with funding and technical coaching 
from Washington under the HIDTA program, get better at catching violent 
drug traffickers, these new skills may be turned against drug users, too, 
putting more and more nonviolent people behind bars.

Policy Blinders.

Successful trafficking raids can lull state and local officials into 
believing drug problems are solved with get-tough policies alone. HIDTA's 
federal-state-local trafficking mentality can divert attention from the 
human side of drug addiction and the need to reduce the demand for drugs in 
neighborhoods with local treatment and prevention programs.

Starving New Initiatives.

By putting more money into drug-interdiction programs like HIDTA - a 
definite risk with Ashcroft the nation's top law-enforcement officer - 
drug-treatment money will become increasingly hard to find. Just when 
governors in once-hardnosed states like New York are looking for 
alternatives to punitive drug policies that have filled their prisons 
without reducing their state's demand for drugs, money for new initiatives 
is likely to dry up.

A lot of state governments are waking up to the value of more humane and 
compassionate drug policies. At least six states have enacted laws that 
legalize medicinal-marijuana use. New Mexico's governor has actually called 
for decriminalization of drugs.

In short, more and more states realize how futile the interdiction and 
imprisonment strategy has been and, instead, favor more resources for 
treatment and education.

Rather than waste Appalachia's $6 million on a bureaucratic committee 
supporting an outdated cops-and-robbers strategy, these funds would be far 
better spent building drug-treatment facilities to help citizens rebuild 
their lives and reduce the demand for drugs in the region. Cutting the 
demand for drugs here at home is the more promising drug-control strategy: 
Cut demand, and drug trafficking will fade away.

Time will tell whether the Bush administration will increase spending for 
the HIDTA program and spread a hard-line, interdiction drug policy among 
the states. But based on what we know so far, there is ample reason for 
governors, mayors and ordinary citizens to worry.
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MAP posted-by: GD