PREVENTION TAKES TIME, MAKES SENSE

City DEA Project Seeks To Cut Drug Demand.

For decades, the "war on drugs" has been fought along traditional lines.
Our "troops" (law enforcement) attack their soldiers (dealers, delivery
men, drug lords) in a series of skirmishes large and small. There are
victories and defeats, but the succession of battles leads to no clear
conclusion. The war drags on, its primary effect keeping up the price --
and profits -- of drugs. Finally, the federal Drug Enforcement
Administration is recognizing there might be a better way. A pilot project
in Springfield and four other cities seeks to reduce demand by creating a
coalition of law enforcement and community groups focusing on prevention
and treatment.

Springfield has a number of groups, most prominently the Community
Partnership of the Ozarks, already engaged in such efforts. They do a good
job, but the task before them is large. Adding DEA efforts should build on
their foundation.

A full-time agent will be assigned to Springfield to work on these issues.
The DEA also will help seek grants to pay for solutions identified in a
summit of 130 community leaders.

Those solutions, which have yet to be prioritized, run the gamut. They
include favorites such as expanding youth programs to keep older children
away from drugs, creating a database of volunteers, providing incentives
for students who volunteer, and creating support teams to help families
with substance abuse issues.

And there were ideas that went well beyond the obvious: making divorce more
difficult, requiring counseling before marriage and encouraging businesses
to give employees flexibility to attend their children's school events. The
last idea has the best chance of happening.

There may be other ideas yet to come that will have an even greater effect.

None of them will result in the made-for-pictures press conferences that
follow big drug busts. Prevention and treatment are more subtle, and
sometimes take years to produce measurable results. Their target is to
change a culture -- a culture inhabited by the 5 percent of Americans who
use illegal drugs. That doesn't come overnight.

"We will win this battle with perseverance," DEA Administrator Asa
Hutchinson told a Springfield audience. "Quick fixes don't work."

We hope he believes his own words and the agency he heads will stay on this
course. Emphasizing prevention and treatment in five cities is just a
start. The pilot programs may suggest which programs work best, but
Hutchinson's successor may have taken office before they begin to give
definitive answers. It can be difficult for political creatures to wait
that long. In this war on drugs, they must.