LOCAL DRUG COURT CAN HELP BREAK ADDICTION

It's been awhile coming, but a new drug court opens for business this
week in the Magic Valley. Its aim is to break the cycle of drug
addiction -- including alcoholism -- that is a frequent accomplice of
criminal behavior.

The drug court, with 5th District Judge Monte Carlson presiding, has
real potential to break a near-endless chain of local crime that is
rooted in drug addiction. If successful, the drug court could make a
positive difference in the lives of many.

It could spare battered women from men who turn nasty when they get a
few drinks in them. It could spare children from the neglect of
drug-abusing mothers. It could spare local homeowners and merchants
from thieves who steal to support their habits.

If successful, a drug court could spare society a lot of
cost.

From a strict dollars-and-cents standpoint, weaning people away from
drugs and alcohol is cheaper than imprisoning them. More
fundamentally, treatment can winch people out of the borrow pit of
life and steer them back onto the road of taxpaying, law-abiding normalcy.

Ask any judge and you'll learn that most felony crimes are committed
by drug addicts and drunks. Locking them away for a few years simply
banks the fires of their addiction; it does nothing to douse the
spark. Once they're released, the addiction flares up again -- and the
cycle begins anew.

The goal of a drug court is to halt the crime of drug abuse before it
spirals into other crimes. Judges can order guilty defendants into
treatment, but they also retain the right to impose jail or prison
time if addicts fail to complete the court-imposed detox program.

Some will argue that treating drug addicts -- rather than locking them
up -- is somehow equivalent to surrender in America's war on drugs.
That's simply not true. No one is pushing to legalize drugs. Nor is
anyone proposing to go easy on lawbreakers who pose a threat to civil
society.

Methamphetamine users who go berserk with knives should be prosecuted.
So should addicts who burglarize other people's homes.

In most cases, it makes more sense to treat the problem of addiction
before it spawns other crimes that threaten society. That approach
makes sense for drug abusers and taxpayers alike, because prisons are
expensive and they're filling up fast here in Idaho.

If it can help to stem that tide, the new drug court will prove to be
a bargain.