CRUSADER WANTS DRUG FUNDS SPENT ON TREATMENT, NOT INCARCERATION

The Rev. Edwin Sanders first fought a crusade to create better health care
for people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

But then, as the minister from Nashville, Tenn., pushed for expanded
services on that front, he began to see a greater problem underlying the
disease that attacks the human immune system.

Drug abuse and how the legal system handles it, Sanders realized, were
issues to which he needed to devote a larger portion of his energy and
ministry.

Many people with HIV/AIDS, especially those he visited in prisons, had been
infected as a result of their drug abuse, he said.

The problem went well beyond HIV/AIDS, however, and dealt with federal
dollars being spent on the war on drugs to keep people in jail, instead of
seeking to rehabilitate them.

"I saw that our country's response to the issue of addiction has been
ineffective," said Sanders, who was in Kalamazoo recently to take part in a
panel that debated the validity of the U.S. war on drugs.

"If we have been fighting a war, it is a war that has failed and been
lost," he said in an interview before he participated in the panel at
Western Michigan University's Bernhard Center.

The nation spent about $1.5 billion in 1980 to fight the war on drugs. By
2003, that amount had surpassed $20 billion, he said.

"Our resources aren't being spent as they need be. The
lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key mentality of the last 25 years hasn't
worked," Sanders said.

The focus of this fight, he said, should be on treatment and maintenance
programs for addicts, particularly for minorities who tend to be the ones
put in jail and not given a chance for treatment and rehabilitation.

His Church Reaches Out

His own church -- Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville --
has developed a range of programs and ministries to address the needs of
addicts and of those impacted by HIV/AIDS.

About 30 percent of his more-than-500-member congregation are recovering
addicts.

"We are a place willing to help develop better behaviors," Sanders said.
"We engage people caught up in the cycle of addiction. We create a
relationship with them and steer them toward treatment and then recovery."

Sanders said he supports efforts such as one announced last week by the
recently organized Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative.

That group is a coalition of religious organizations that has voiced
support for a bill that would repeal federal mandatory minimum sentences
for drug offenders, and vowed to fight a competing bill aimed at
strengthening current laws.

The Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative brought together leaders from a broad
base of religious organizations and the NAACP recently to support a bill by
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.

"We cannot incarcerate our way out of our country's drug problem," Waters said.

More than 20 organizations are opposed to mandatory minimum sentences,
including the National Council of Churches, the United Methodist Church,
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the
Union for Reform Judaism, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Church Women
United and the Episcopal Church.

While the focus of his ministry is on minorities and others who are often
jailed instead of offered a chance at recovery, Sanders said he is trying
to bring his message to politicians and others who can make a difference.

"I want to raise the consciousness to get mainstream America to appreciate
that this (putting addicts in jail) is a bad way to spend our money," he said.

Addiction specialists say the cost to put a single drug dealer in jail is
about $450,000. The cost for arrest and conviction is about $150,000.

The cost for an additional prison bed is about $50,000 to $150,000,
depending on the jurisdiction.

It costs about $30,000 per year to house a prisoner, addiction specialists
say. With an average sentence of five years, that adds up to another $150,000.

The same $450,000 could provide treatment for about 200 people.

"The fact is, there are effective ways to develop education and prevention
models," Sanders said.