WAR ON DRUGS

Maleng Pushing More Rational Tactics

Republican King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng went to Olympia on Tuesday to
urge legislators to get a new grip on drugs.

As he has before, the sometimes candidate for governor insisted that it's
better to treat users than try to punish them into better habits. Treatment
also eats up less tax money than does incarceration.

He has a lot of allies among law enforcement. Police, prosecutors, judges
and jailers know they are losing the war on drugs. Legislators may know it,
too.

Last year, the legislation Maleng supports won ready acceptance in the
state Senate. It went nowhere in the House, however. With control split
evenly between Republicans and Democrats, not much of anything innovative
got through the House. Now, with Democrats in command by a single vote,
Maleng and other drug-law reformers hope for some progress.

A dozen years ago the political wind was blowing toward more punishment.
The Legislature boosted sentences for users as well as for pushers. The
number of people locked up rose rapidly, as did the cost. Drug use
increased along with the number of people punished for using.

Under the legislation backed by Maleng, the state would take two years to
reduce the length of sentences for first-time convictions on charges of
making or delivering heroin or cocaine. The mandatory sentence now is 21 to
27 months. That would be cut to 15 to 21 months. Proponents expect that
slowly backing off on the unproductive sentencing would save some money
that could be put back into treatment. In 2004, the state would reduce
sentences even more and have still more money to use to buy treatment.

Some legislators are balking at the whole idea. Several worry that future
challengers will charge them with being soft on crime if they don't keep
fighting an all-out albeit futile drug war. Others suspect that any money
saved by way of less incarceration will be siphoned off for other state
purposes rather than being shifted to treatment.

That could happen. In his effort to fill a $1.8 billion hole in the budget
gouged by economic circumstance, Gov. Gary Locke has proposed simply
cutting prison terms of drug offenders already serving time. Locke does not
suggest any related increase in the amount the state is spending on
treatment for addicts.

In any case, the Legislature has to face the reality that all the money
spent in the war on drugs hasn't paid dividends. Continuing the same
pattern that has resulted in failure is crazy.