EXPERIMENTING WITH DRUG POLICY MUST STOP

It's time for Idaho and other states to stop experimenting with drugs.

That phrase may conjure up images of teens smoking pot in garages, but it
may be that the more dangerous experimentation has been our scattershot
efforts to enact and enforce legislation dealing with drug offenders.

No, we're not in favor of legalization, nor of turning a blind eye to the
distribution or use of illicit drugs. But right now, Idaho has the fastest
growing prison population in the nation.

Meanwhile, southeast Idaho is battling the pernicious spread of
methamphetamine and its presence on the drug corridor between Mexico and
Canada. Drug laws stack up, money pours in from federal grants and matching
programs to fight controlled substances, and the Legislature has swerved
between harsh penalties for drug offenders and allowing districts to set up
drug treatment courts, but not providing sufficient funds. We're on the
cusp of building another jail to handle overflow from our brand new $20
million detention center. Bannock County has turned to warehousing female
inmates at out-of-state, for-profit jails because we don't have room for
them and it is, in fact, cheaper than building housing for them here.

Clearly, what we're doing doesn't work, and it drains the coffers and
morale of counties that would truly like to see their drug problem disappear.

Enough. Idaho needs to decide whether we're going to prosecute drug
offenders or treat them. Either system can work, but the state has to buy
in completely -- and neither solution is cheap.

If we're committed to prosecution of drug offenses, we have to face the
fact that methamphetamine is a growth industry. We need to direct enough
money to police and drug task forces to track down and shut down meth
production labs, sales and buyers. We need manpower and support resources.

We will also need more jail facilities, because a serious effort at drug
policy enforcement is going to land a lot more people in jail. As long as
we're in the business of building jails, county agencies might look to the
bottom line and consider operating for-profit jails, housing inmates from
other counties and states. Idaho isn't the only state that has too few beds
for too many prisoners.

But if we recognize drug use as a social disease with a cure, we may be
able to slow the tide swamping our jails. Drug treatment courts, which work
effectively around the nation, take minor drug offenders -- users, not
traffickers -- and offer them suspended sentences in exchange for cleaning
up in a treatment program.

It's an expensive solution, requiring support structure from hospitals and
mental health agencies, but it will put more Idahoans back into circulation
as productive citizens without exposing them to the myriad of problems in
the prison culture. We will have to seek federal grant monies and cash
support from the Legislature.

In any case, Idaho needs to get serious about its policies toward drug use
and sales, and that's not a move that can begin in Boise. It has to happen
right here at home.