DRUGS, MONEY & PLANS

A New State Program May Sound Good, But It Won't Do Much

Alabama is getting a federal grant to fight drugs. It will use the money to
develop a prevention plan. A 23-member committee will spearhead that
development. The plan will help state, regional and local groups work as a
coalition. Blah, blah, blah.

If this were 1970 or thereabouts, news of a synergistic anti-drug campaign
might count as a creative approach to fighting drug use among children from
12 to 17 years old - the age group this program has targeted.

As it is, no amount of forced optimism would lead a rational person to
conclude that the $9 million federal grant, which will pay for a three-year
project, is going to do much to impede, much less prevent, drug
experimentation by youngsters.

Instead, the major forces driving this umpteenth
let's-get-together-and-fight-drugs project are:

The state learned there was $9 million in grants it could get from the feds
if it jumped through the right bureaucratic hoops. So it did.

It's always good P.R. for a politician - in this case Gov. Bob Riley, in
announcing the grant Wednesday - to take a public stance against drugs.

Alabama has $9 million from the feds it didn't have before - money that can
now be spent in this state rather than in some other state where people
could write reports about how they can stop drug use from spreading or
interdict it among young people.

This is not to say that education, intervention and treatment can't help
and shouldn't be implemented. Rather, it is to acknowledge the vast gulf
between what any study commission that faces the problem squarely will
recommend and what the Legislature and local governments in Alabama will do
with those recommendations.

As long as drug use is mostly confined to a certain socioeconomic segment,
the majority of Alabama politicians - apparently reflecting the views of
their constituents - has steadfastly held that punitive actions can stop or
curtail drug use.

The fact that this hasn't worked for two generations - and has done little
but send the cost of prisons skyrocketing - has been basically ignored by
politicians and the public. After all, it sounded like we were doing
something effective.

But instances like the crack cocaine charges against the now ex-principal
of Lee High School show that drug abuse is a far more complex problem than
we might like to think, and that we can't make penalties tough enough to
win the "war" on drugs.

No, any panel that really looks at the issue has to conclude that drug
abuse is a medical and societal problem more than it is a criminal one. And
such a message isn't going to play well with the Legislature. It wants to
see the problem as a purely criminal one.

Oh, well, at least Alabama got another federal grant that can help some
mental health and social services agencies, and others who are valiantly
trying to deal with the drug problem rationally.

Besides, the state couldn't just say "no" to an extra $9 million.