DRUG TREATMENT CRITICAL FOR METH USERS

How should Arizona respond to illicit methamphetamine use? During the
crack epidemic of the eighties, New York City chose the zero-tolerance
approach, opting to arrest and prosecute as many offenders as possible.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was smoking crack and
America's capital had the highest per capita murder rate in the
country. Yet crack use declined in both cities simultaneously.

Simply put, the younger generation saw firsthand what crack was doing
to their older brothers and sisters and decided for themselves that
crack was bad news.

This is not to say nothing can be done about methamphetamine. Access
to drug treatment is critical for the current generation of meth
users. Diverting resources away from prisons and into cost-effective
treatment would save both tax dollars and lives.

The following U.S. Department of Justice research brief confirms my
claims regarding the spontaneous decline of crack cocaine:

www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/187490.txt.

Robert Sharpe, policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.