Pubdate: Tue, 15 May 2001 Source: Times-News, The (ID) Copyright: 2001 Magic Valley Newspapers Contact: http://www.magicvalley.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/595 LOCAL DRUG COURT CAN HELP BREAK ADDICTION It's been awhile coming, but a new drug court opens for business this week in the Magic Valley. Its aim is to break the cycle of drug addiction -- including alcoholism -- that is a frequent accomplice of criminal behavior. The drug court, with 5th District Judge Monte Carlson presiding, has real potential to break a near-endless chain of local crime that is rooted in drug addiction. If successful, the drug court could make a positive difference in the lives of many. It could spare battered women from men who turn nasty when they get a few drinks in them. It could spare children from the neglect of drug-abusing mothers. It could spare local homeowners and merchants from thieves who steal to support their habits. If successful, a drug court could spare society a lot of cost. From a strict dollars-and-cents standpoint, weaning people away from drugs and alcohol is cheaper than imprisoning them. More fundamentally, treatment can winch people out of the borrow pit of life and steer them back onto the road of taxpaying, law-abiding normalcy. Ask any judge and you'll learn that most felony crimes are committed by drug addicts and drunks. Locking them away for a few years simply banks the fires of their addiction; it does nothing to douse the spark. Once they're released, the addiction flares up again -- and the cycle begins anew. The goal of a drug court is to halt the crime of drug abuse before it spirals into other crimes. Judges can order guilty defendants into treatment, but they also retain the right to impose jail or prison time if addicts fail to complete the court-imposed detox program. Some will argue that treating drug addicts -- rather than locking them up -- is somehow equivalent to surrender in America's war on drugs. That's simply not true. No one is pushing to legalize drugs. Nor is anyone proposing to go easy on lawbreakers who pose a threat to civil society. Methamphetamine users who go berserk with knives should be prosecuted. So should addicts who burglarize other people's homes. In most cases, it makes more sense to treat the problem of addiction before it spawns other crimes that threaten society. That approach makes sense for drug abusers and taxpayers alike, because prisons are expensive and they're filling up fast here in Idaho. If it can help to stem that tide, the new drug court will prove to be a bargain. - --- MAP posted-by: Andrew