Pubdate: Mon, 01 Apr 2002 Source: Oakland Press, The (MI) Copyright: 2002 The Oakland Press Contact: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.asp?brd=982 Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2114 Author: Stephen Frye, Of The Oakland Press CHIEFS: DRUG BATTLE IS FAILING For now, the war on drugs seems doomed to fail. The battle won't be won with the strategies in effect today, according to three Oakland County police chiefs who worked in narcotics units in the Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. The three chiefs - William Dwyer of Farmington Hills, Ed Glomb of Franklin and Ronald Cronin of West Bloomfield Township - worked one of the toughest beats together in the 1970s and 1980s, fighting on the front lines of the drug war on the streets of Detroit. Though they no longer work in Detroit, the three remain friends. And the communities they now serve as law enforcement leaders border one another and are within a few miles of their former stomping grounds. The chiefs agree that a change in emphasis is needed to turn the tide. "The problem today is worse than it was 25 years ago," said Glomb, who worked Detroit-area narcotics for the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. "We've got to start taking a different approach to it." Cronin agrees: "We're battling the same battles. We have not won any war when it comes to narcotics. Right now, all we do is contain the people. We keep a lid on it. "Are we ever going to overcome it? No." Dwyer can rattle off the standard functions of police in this fight - investigate, arrest, convict, seize, forfeit, imprison. "All of these are done continuously, over and over again," Dwyer said. From 1975 to 1981, Dwyer led the Detroit police narcotics unit. During that time, he said his squad of 180 officers conducted an average of 10 to 12 raids a day, seven days a week. "He more or less changed the narcotics squad from being a decentralized unit to a centralized unit and targeting higher echelon traffickers," said Glomb about Dwyer. Dwyer says a three-pronged attack is needed - strong law enforcement, rehabilitation for users and addicts and education to prevent experimentation, use and addiction. Cronin said the addition of mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug users, which can land someone with more than 650 grams of cocaine in prison for life, have done little to slow the problem. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws apply not only to cocaine, but many other drugs as well. Along with many defense attorneys, Cronin has seen low-level people, known as mules because they simply do the carrying for others, end up in prison for life. He thinks mandatory minimums need to be re-examined because they seldom affect the truly high-level drug dealer. "It hasn't changed anything in 25 years," he said of those laws. It comes down to a simple economic law: as long as a demand exists, there will be a supply. "The demand is as great now as in the '70s and '80s, if not greater," Dwyer said. "As long as you have a demand, you'll have a drug problem." Busting up narcotics distribution organizations is important in preventing the war from being lost, but it does not solve the overall nationwide drug problem. "Every time you take a major organization down and cripple it, people will come in and take it over because it is so lucrative," Dwyer said. Glomb is even more pessimistic. "When we left, the problem was worse than when we started," Glomb said. "We kind of laugh at this 'war on drugs.' We lost it a long time ago, unfortunately. "I don't think you're ever going to get completely rid of drugs. As long as there's profit, you can't get rid of drugs." Glomb's proposal is to put the convicted users and dealers to work. Their sentences should include long stints of treatment followed by working to fix the damage done, especially in the neighborhoods. "A lot of neighborhoods are trashed because of drugs," Glomb said. "Get them off drugs and then positively involved with rebuilding the community. Have them become part of the solution instead of the problem. I'd rather see them at some camp someplace, working." After that, he would like to see job placement become an integral part of the person's improvement. He said a hurdle to helping nonviolent addicts is that after three or four arrests, they're often sent to prison, where they mix with truly hardened criminals. "They come out worse than when they went in," Glomb said. To curb the demand, education and rehabilitation need to serve a stronger role. "The greatest value is in rehabilitation," Dwyer said. "There are not enough long-term rehab centers for people who get addicted to drugs." A major problem in law enforcement has been getting substantial rehabilitation help to addicts who commit property crimes, Dwyer said. "That's where we are failing - to get these people help," Dwyer said. "Many addicts want to get help." Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said an effective treatment plan requires the promise of punishment if treatment fails. Dwyer, who is president of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, said law enforcement officials in general, including himself, are not prepared to endorse the legalization of drugs. Keeping up the fight against drugs is crucial to law enforcement because of how deeply addiction affects society. Dwyer said his department's top concern is reducing the most violent crimes - murder, armed robbery, sex crimes and making drugs available to children. Anytime drugs and addiction can be reduced, other crimes will fall, particularly home invasions and armed robberies. Dwyer said 80 percent of all people imprisoned nationally have substance-abuse problems. "Every day we see armed robberies committed by people who are addicted. If we didn't have this drug problem, you wouldn't see the overcrowding of jails and prisons," Dwyer said. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake