WAR ON DRUGS COSTLY, INEFFECTIVE; USE MONEY FOR TREATMENT INSTEAD

The one bright spot in a rash of recent bad news was the miraculous
retrieval of three Americans, held in the Colombian jungle for five
and one-half years by a revolutionary group known by its acronym as
FARC.

The three, employees of the DynCorp, which had a defense department
contract to help the U.S.-supplied Colombian military eradicate
thousands of acres of cocoa plants, had been flying a surveillance
plane in search of hidden coca plantations when it crashed deep in the
jungle.

Mindful that cocaine is derived from coca plants and that the above
endeavor was part of our 40-year-long War on Drugs, I turned to Kevin
Lewis, the dedicated and knowledgeable CEO of Southwest Florida
Addiction Services (SWFAS), for some answers on the war's
effectiveness.

"'War on Drugs' is a silly name - you don't have a war on heart
disease, or diabetes," pointed out Lewis. "Addiction is a disease, and
there will always be addicts but what we need are more detoxification
and other type of treatment centers in this country as both a more
humane and cheaper alternative to prison for non-violent offenders."

I then asked Lewis to respond to factual evidence that coca plants
production is actually up in Colombia despite the spraying program,
and that Americans continue to be the world's largest user of both
cocaine and marijuana with supply so plentiful that the street price
of illicit drugs is declining.

His reply: "That is like trying to stop flooding by draining our
rivers and oceans." I took that to mean that he was responding to
statistics that show that, despite our best efforts with Coast Guard
interdictions, beefed up border patrols and our widespread use of
undercover law enforcement, only 20 percent of the illegal drugs
flooding into this country are intercepted.

Lewis reemphasizes his belief that treatment for addiction, rather
than legalizing use, is the answer and he has put his words into
action with SWFAS, for years, operating the only detoxification center
in Lee County. With a growing county population, its 20-bed capacity
was wholly inadequate and, after a successful fund-raising drive, a
new SWFAS building is under construction on Evans Avenue and will open
next year with an additional 40 beds.

Another step in the right direction was undertaken by a local
consortium of nonprofits, with county and state financial support,
with the opening in May of a Triage Center that provides law
enforcement with an alternative to jailing minor offenders. Many of
them - the alcoholics and other substance abusers, the mentally ill,
the homeless - would benefit more from treatment and other social services.

Still, given the enormity of the substance abuse problem in this
country, Kevin Lewis' dream of sufficient treatment centers to deal
with the problem may never materialize for lack of funding.

Drug-related offenders comprise over half our astounding 3,000,000
jail population and, despite hundreds of billions spent on the War on
Drugs, there is too little progress for the money expended. Perhaps it
is time to divert some of this money to more treatment centers so
fewer of our youths are lost to the drug scene.