CRIME AND DRUGS

Contrary to the positive national trend, crime in Vermont is worsening.

Statistics out last week showed troubling increases in the last four years
in robberies, aggravated assaults and drug violations. The number of rapes
was lower in 2000 than in 1997, but it increased by 17 percent over 1999.

Statewide, the number of burglaries is down, but in Rutland burglaries have
nearly doubled in the last two years. Last year burglaries in Rutland City
rose from 101 to 145. This year they rose to 198.

Police chiefs in Rutland, Barre, and Montpelier all say heroin is behind
the rise in burglaries and other crimes where raising quick cash is the goal.

Police have seen it before. Rutland Police Chief Anthony Bossi said that in
the late '80s and early '90s the drug causing most of the problems was
cocaine. At that time burglaries and other drug-related crimes were
riseing. Crime statistics took a welcome dip in the mid-'90s befor heroin
problems took hold.

Vermont is a small enough state that, if drugs catch on among a few hundred
users, the effects can be seen in the statistics. In Rutland County alone,
officials believe heroin is being used by as many as 300 people.

Liquor violations statewide have also seen a sharp increase, nearly
doubling since 1997. Part of the increase is no doubt due to an increased
emphasis on arresting drunken drivers. But alcohol abuse has always been at
the root of much of the crime in Vermont.

A broad consensus has emerged that Vermont must devote more resources to
treatment, not just of heroin addicts, but of alcoholics and other drug
abusers. The state House of Representatives took steps this year toward
establishing a drug court as a pilot program in Rutland County, but the
bill is awaiting action in the Senate. The Senate could take a leadership
role in broadening the bill and making sure that sufficient treatment
programs exist so that defendants with drug problems get the help they need.

Our jails are filling up faster than we can build them. One alarming
statistic of recent years was that one in seven young Vermont men is in
jail, on probation, or otherwise in state custody. The nexus between drug
abuse, illiteracy, poverty, and crime can be seen in that figure. If
Vermont means to address that alarming trend - a trend reflected in the
recent crime statistics - it must confront the problem of drug abuse.

Sen. Dick Sears of Bennington is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary
Committee and someone who may be able to take a comprehensive look at the
drug problem. Methadone has a place within a treatment program, but the
resistance of communities, including Rutland, to methadone must not be used
as an excuse to slow progress toward treatment of the wide range of
drug-related problems plaguing the state.

The recent rise in crime reflects what we already knew about the increasing
drug problem in the state. We also know effective drug treatment is the
remaining untried remedy. We just need the will to try it.