STOP REWARDING FAILURE

Gov. Bill Owens was right in his recent observation that Colorado's current
budget difficulties offer a chance to sort out good programs from ones that
have lost their value, allowing the state to concentrate on truly worthwhile
efforts when the economy recovers.

The strength of the private sector is that if a company fouls up badly
enough, like Global Crossing, it goes bankrupt. Any productive divisions and
its remaining employees are then absorbed by companies that can make better
use of their talents.

In government, by sad contrast, a failing program is more likely to be
rewarded with a budget increase, in hopes that throwing money at a problem
will cure the contradictions that are at the heart of the program's failure.

At both the state and local levels, the war on drugs provides numerous
examples of government programs that have prospered through failure, drawing
more money even as they manifestly fail to solve the festering social
problem of substance abuse.

The fundamental problem underlying the war on drugs is that government can't
decide whether drug users are criminals or victims. Of about 19,000
prisoners behind bars in Colorado, 20 percent are there for offenses related
to drugs, according to state Sen. Ken Gordon, D- Denver. More importantly, a
whopping 75 percent of inmates in Colorado's prisons have a substance-abuse
problem that has almost certainly contributed to their committing more
serious crimes - but only half of those receive any type of therapy.

Because their underlying drug and alcohol-abuse problems haven't been
solved, these wretches turn the prison gates into a revolving door by
shuffling out, re-offending and returning to prison.

Last year, Gordon sought to break that cycle of failure with SB 39, a bill
that passed the state House of Representatives 61-1 and the Senate 28-7. The
measure would have reduced sentences for possession of less than a gram of
certain drugs and used the $2.2 million those reductions would have saved
for additional drug-treatment programs.

Unfortunately, Owens vetoed Gordon's bill, despite its overwhelming
bipartisan backing, saying he was opposed to shortening sentences for drug
offenses. But now, in the midst of the state's budget crunch, Owens has
asked for a $54 million increase in the prison budget for the upcoming
fiscal year. Hmmm. A government program fails and is rewarded by a budget
increase. Where have we heard that story before?

We hope the governor's willingness to use the current budget stringencies to
review government programs causes him to take a second look at Colorado's
role in the failed war on drugs - and support a revived version of Gordon's
bill in the upcoming legislature.