DRUG TREATMENT STILL USEFUL

Try as Angela did, she just couldn't kick her cocaine habit. Drug treatment
is not 100% effective. But public policy-makers must not let this one
failure sour them on treatment. In fact, Wisconsin should make more use of
treatment, not less.

Angela is the so-called cocaine mom, whose last name the Journal Sentinel
has chosen not to print to guard her children's identities. The nation
learned of her travails with cocaine in 1995, when a judge locked her up to
protect her fetus - a novel move later declared unconstitutional by the
Wisconsin Supreme Court.

In 1997, a judge terminated her parental rights to the son she had been
carrying two years earlier. Her case inspired a state law passed in 1998
permitting judges to detain pregnant women who abuse drugs.

The other day there was a replay of the '97 action. Waukesha County Circuit
Judge J. Mac Davis terminated Angela's parental rights to her latest son,
who's now 2 1/2. What's more, two additional children are in the custody of
Angela's mother.

Waukesha County reportedly spent tens of thousands of dollars trying to
treat Angela's addiction. Was that wasted money? Obviously, the treatment
didn't work.

Still, as a rule, treatment is much more effective than busts, border
patrols, and crop killings in curbing drug use. A study by the prestigious
Rand Corp. has found that treatment is seven times more cost-effective in
reducing cocaine use than the best efforts to cut back on the supply of the
drug. Looked at another way, the nation can reduce cocaine consumption 1%
by spending either $34 million for treatment or $246 million for domestic
law enforcement.

Sound drug policy works both the supply side and the demand side. But too
many politicians too often choose Option B - the supply side - and give
short shrift to demand.

Sure, for some addicts, kicking a habit is practically impossible. And when
a habit gets in the way of minimal parenting, the authorities are right to
intervene in behalf of the child. But in the long run, treatment works
better than the slam-bang strategies politicians prefer for curbing drugs.