REASSESS DRUG WAR GRANTS

The United States has an illegal drug addiction, which in the last 50
years, it has been unsuccessful at alleviating.

Tons of illegal drugs cross into the country each year, and local law
enforcement agencies then have to deal with the presence of those drugs
within their communities.

Through the Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, the federal
government has funded local law agencies in the drug war. Local Muskogee
County officials estimate about 60 percent of the funds for its drug task
force, $150,000 this year, comes from the Byrne grant. Without it, the
officials say, drug fighting efforts would be severely hampered.

Yet the White House is proposing an elimination of the grant in 2006. And
it is doing it for some good reasons: reports of scandals in the misuse of
those funds by several agencies across the United States, false drug
convictions, and task forces receiving money and vehicles in exchange for
dropping or lowering charges against drug offenders.

First, abuses of the program, or any funding program, should not be
tolerated, and any federal program should include safeguards that prevent
abuse by those receiving the funds.

However, if the federal government wants to end the Byrne grants, then it
needs to reassess its approach to the U.S. drug problem. The drug war has
had little success. In the decades-long struggle, the battlegrounds change,
but the intensity of the battles has not.

We don't have all the answers, but we don't advocate more jail time for
drug offenders. Locking up users is getting us nowhere. They need
counseling, rehabilitation programs.

If money is going to be thrown at the problem, then it needs to be directed
at the suppliers. Local law agencies will complain they are being
shortchanged, but perhaps the White House is correct. If these funds have
been contributing to abuse and done little to alleviate drug abuse, then
let's make meaningful changes.