TIME FOR ACTION

Some senators are worried about putting the cart before the horse in
establishing a drug court in Rutland.

The cart is the court, and the horse is the needed treatment programs that
would make a drug court work. The answer is not to stop the cart, but to
prod the horse forward so that drug offenders get the help they need.

Earlier this week the House passed a bill calling for a special "drug
docket," a pilot program beginning in Rutland next April. The idea is to
give drug offenders the option of drug treatment instead of jail. The
problem is that the necessary treatment programs are not in place.

The issue that has provoked the most debate has been whether the new
treatment programs will include a methadone clinic at Rutland Regional
Medical Center. Many medical authorities say methadone is the best
treatment for heroin addicts, but others say there are better methods.

The drug court proposal should not become derailed because of the methadone
question. Senators who are concerned about the absence of treatment
programs available in Rutland should look at methadone less as a panacea
and more as one treatment option among many that should be used as part of
a comprehensive approach to drug treatment. They could reassure Rutland
residents worried about the use of methadone by taking the time to find the
money and develop the programs necessary to make the drug court and its
treatment alternatives work.

It would do no one any good to rush a drug court into place before its
essential components have been developed. That means that between now and
next winter senators, working with the Dean administration, ought to get
realistic figures on the cost of providing treatment for addicts caught in
the legal system.

An unusually broad consensus has developed among liberals, conservatives,
social services and law enforcement that the scourge of drugs cannot be
combated successfully by means of law enforcement alone. This is a rare
opportunity. The uncertainty surrounding available treatment options should
not be used as a cause for delay but as a call to action.