AN AMERICAN EPIPHANY IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

One of my favorite scenes in best picture nominee "Traffic" shows
Michael Douglas, who plays America's new drug czar, trying to learn
quickly the details of his job. He's on an airplane surrounded by top
aides.

Who's responsible for treatment, he asks. After an awkward pause, one
says, "uh, no one, sir."

It's a movie filled with ugly truths about drugs in America This is
one of them - in the War on Drugs, treatment is an afterthought.

That may be about to change. Finally, pop culture and mainstream
media are reflecting what many ordinary folks have been saying for
years - local, state and federal drug policies are seriously flawed.

Last week, in a report on fighting addiction, Newsweek magazine
captured that sentiment, calling it an American epiphany, a nation
that now believes "perhaps the only way to win the drug war is to do
more to treat its victims."

In this state, law-enforcement officials and legislators in both
parties have heard the message and seem ready to embrace reforms in
drug laws.

Tomorrow in Olympia, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng will lead a
delegation in support of reduced sentences for certain drug offenders
and, most significant, a shift of state dollars from prisons to
treatment.

Maleng is no radical reformer. He is cautious and pragmatic and a
tiny bit defensive. In a recent conversation, Maleng recalled the
Omnibus Drug Act of 1989. "In 12 years, we've been successful with
law enforcement. We controlled crime against neighborhoods, but
nothing else happened."

"Drug addiction," he said, "is a terrible tragedy. The question is,
can we be more effective?"

The answer is, Yes.

A fifth of this state's inmates are jailed primarily on drug charges.
That's the largest single category of the prison population.
Additionally, many property crimes are committed by addicts
supporting their habit. Not all will respond to treatment, but many
will. Treatment is costly, but reformers, including Maleng, are right
to argue that it makes more sense to spend money to treat an addict
than to lock him up.

Proposals now before the Legislature to reduce sentences and shift
money from lock-up to treatment are too little, too late for those
threatening a ballot initiative that would go farther, faster.

Unfortunately, Maleng and legislators are in somewhat of a reactive
mode on this issue. But better to react to the threat than to the
reality of bad new law that swings too far in the opposite direction,
which is what has happened in California.

Voters there approved Proposition 36 last fall. It sentences drug
offenders to treatment rather than prison. Typical of many
initiatives, it is overly simplistic in its approach and totally
unaffordable.

Haven't we had enough of bad law by initiative in this state? The
serious, bipartisan effort now going on in Olympia is a significant
bend in the road, away from costly failures and omissions of the
tough-on-crime era.

And speaking of omissions, what about prevention? Two weeks ago, I
wrote about research that shows carefully designed prevention
programs can be successful in keeping young people away from drugs.
Linwood Carlson runs the student assistance program for Seattle
Public Schools. He wrote to tell me that, according to an independent
evaluator, prevention programs in Seattle schools also are working.

Like all successful prevention programs, it is comprehensive,
intensive and persistent. The Seattle approach involves students in
peer mediation, parents, community professionals and school staff.

Carlson's letter was one more reminder that if treatment has been an
afterthought in the war on drugs, prevention has not even been in the
battle plan.

Yet, research shows that just as drug addiction is treatable, drug
use is preventable.

All this means that even if drug laws are reformed this session along
the lines Maleng and others propose, much work remains in the battle
against drug use and its corrosive effects on our communities. There
is no hope of real progress, let alone victory, unless prevention is
an integral part of the strategy.