BAUMAN WANTS TO END DRUG WAR

Mayor Says Users Need Help, Not Jail

Madison Mayor Sue Bauman is calling for an end to the war on drugs.

In her annual State of the City speech Tuesday night, Bauman said efforts
to stop drug and alcohol abuse by punishing users are "a failed strategy."

Madison "has a history of turning its back on failed strategies that cause
job loss, break up homes, and further destroy the lives of people around
the abuser," she said.

Bauman said officials must recognize that "users of drugs and abusers of
alcohol and prescription drugs have a health problem" and respond with
treatment options and programs to prevent abuse.

The mayor did not detail how she plans to implement this new policy, but
said she wants to convene a group meeting this fall with county officials -
and possibly U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson -
to "develop a systematic approach to how we can address this problem at its
earliest stages rather than by having to resort to law enforcement and
incarceration to address it."

Bauman conceded that the city's ability to effect such changes is limited.
While Madison police are responsible for enforcing drug laws, the city
generally has few resources for providing treatment for drug abusers. Most
of those programs are funded by the state and administered by the county.

Over the past several years, the city has sponsored a number of programs,
such as the federally funded Weed and Seed, intended to prevent drug abuse
by giving youths and others alternative activities. Bauman indicated future
efforts would probably fall along those lines.

Bauman prefaced her comments by noting that drug abuse "continues to be a
problem across our nation, in our community, and unfortunately, in our city
departments," a reference to the ongoing attempts to remove firefighters
implicated in the Jocko's bar cocaine scandal.

Bauman's proposal was endorsed by Ald. Dorothy Borchardt, who has disagreed
with the mayor over random drug testing for city employees. Bauman opposes
the tests, while Borchardt supports them.

"It is an illness," Borchardt said of drug abuse. "Do I think we should
continue to build prisons and put people in them (who use drugs)? No way. I
believe in treatment programs, but I do believe in accountability. If
you're a city employee who uses drugs, unless you come forward and ask for
help, you should be held responsible."

Bauman also announced plans to create eight "resource teams" by the end of
the year to help residents connect with city government.

The city already has four such teams to coordinate police, fire, public
health, building inspection, and other services in what the mayor described
as "challenged" neighborhoods on the north, east, and south sides and
central Madison.

A broader initiative to create an Office of Neighborhood Support,
potentially a new city agency, will be included in the 2002 city budget to
consolidate a number of neighborhood-level programs, the mayor said.