Failure to address drug treatment costing taxpayers plenty
Monday, December 1, 2008 12:33 AM PST
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A new report by the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution on this country’s so-called “war on drugs” ought to be required reading for federal and state lawmakers. The report flatly declares U.S. anti-drug policy a failure, according to a report by Los Angeles Times writer Tracy Wilkinson. Brookings researchers note that the use of heroin and cocaine in the United States has not declined significantly, the use of methamphetamine continues to rise and retail prices for illicit drugs are falling.
Too much emphasis on enforcement and too little attention to treatment get the blame for the failure to stem the supply and use of street drugs. Without a much stronger emphasis on reducing consumption through treatment programs, national and state efforts to combat illegal drugs will continue to fail, according to the Brookings report.
This is a familiar criticism of U.S. drug policy, and it’s supported by most objective evidence. Yet, elected public officials at all levels of government too often find the popular call to simply crack down on drug use hard to resist. Politically, it seems more beneficial to lock ‘em up and throw away the key than to call for alternatives to incarceration that emphasize treatment and counseling.
But repeatedly giving in the impulse to play “tough cop” has been costly. Prison population is at an all-time high the United States, with one in 100 people behind bars. High prison costs and overcrowding are forcing some states to consider early release of even violent offenders. That’s not happening in this state, but Washington taxpayers are hard-pressed to build prisons fast enough to keep up with a growing inmate population. The state’s corrections bill for the current biennium totals $1.4 billion, and it’s expected to grow 13 percent, to $1.8 billion, in the next two-year budget cycle.
The chief cause of this rapid growth in inmate populations here and around the country are minimum sentencing laws enacted over the past couple of decades in response to public concern about drug-related crime. This state’s 1989 Omnibus Drug Act helped spark Washington’s prison-building spree.
To its credit, the Washington Legislature attempted to take a step back from that minimum-sentencing law in 2003, voting to reduce prison time and expand drug treatment options for nonviolent, first-time offenders. But it proved to be little more than a finger in the dike. Washington taxpayers still cannot build or expand prisons fast enough to meet the demand for new prison beds.
The high demand for illegal drugs drives that high demand for prison beds. Attacking drug consumption through treatment programs, as this Brookings report recommends, is the sensible way to both turn around lives and save tax dollars.
ItsKarma wrote on Dec 1, 2008 10:17 AM:
I would love for TDN to do a follow up with the stats of proven 10 year recovery. "
rosy wrote on Dec 1, 2008 10:42 AM:
And the support has to be consistent and ordered. The neighbors can not give them money for 'milk for the baby'. It goes through the agency, which gives them the milk, not the money.
Is it worth the effort? I bet it is. "
RealityCheck wrote on Dec 1, 2008 10:42 AM:
ItsKarma wrote on Dec 1, 2008 12:47 PM:
Maybe if addicts had to work for the right to receive treatment it would be more effective? I'm tired of my dollars being thrown down a black hole for people that are unwilling to try. There needs to be a limit.
I am willing to pay if they 1. cannot have more children 2. commit another drug related offence and off to PRISON 3. they have to pay the state back (after x amount of time). Why should they get a free ride for making bad choices? "
gabby wrote on Dec 1, 2008 3:09 PM:
cheney119 wrote on Dec 1, 2008 4:30 PM:
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