BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: STATE DELIVERS MONEY FOR DRUG TREATMENT

It seems from reading the newspaper these days that there is nothing but
bad news coming from Olympia, with headlines about budget deficits,
cutbacks and gridlock. What may have been lost among the bad news is a
courageous legislative achievement in bringing balance to our strategy
against illegal drugs.

With the passage of HB 2338, we have taken a huge step forward in reforming
drug sentencing laws. The bill was sponsored in the House by Ruth Kagi,
D-Lake Forest Park, and Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, and in the Senate
by Adam Kline, D-Seattle, and Jeanine Long, R-Mill Creek.

The Legislature last enacted major drug policy reform in 1989 by doubling
prison sentences for drug delivery crimes and promising to build a drug
treatment infrastructure within the criminal justice system.

The prison sentences were appropriate at the time and have contributed to
our reduced crime rate. They have been an effective tool for law
enforcement; we have not lost neighborhoods to drug dealers, as has
occurred in many major U.S. cities.

The result of tough sentencing laws, however, has been that 25 percent of
the prison inmates in the state are there for a drug crime, many for
selling less than $50 worth of drugs.

What did not happen after 1989 was the promise of state-funded drug
treatment. With the exception of county drug courts, which are funded by
county budgets supplemented by federal grants and some state assistance,
there has been no attempt to build up treatment as an equal partner with
law enforcement.

The bill, now awaiting Gov. Gary Locke's approval, does these three things:

*Reduces the prison terms for minor drug dealers by about 6 months for the
first offense, from 24 months to 18 months.

*Captures the money that we would have spent on incarceration within the
Department of Corrections.

*Invests that money, up to $8.25 million a year, into drug treatment
programs within county criminal justice systems and the state prisons.

The current state drug sentencing laws, which are tough but rigid, will be
replaced by a sentencing scheme that will allow prosecutors to distinguish
between small-time addicted dealers and those who peddle drugs for profit.
The former will still face prison time, but also have drug treatment
programs to help them escape the cycle of addiction and imprisonment. Major
dealers, and those who sell to minors, will actually face longer terms than
they do today.

Arrest, prosecution and imprisonment were never supposed to be the entire
strategy to combat drugs. Drug abuse is a complex issue that cannot be
successfully battled without a comprehensive strategy that incorporates
treatment as an equal partner with law enforcement.

We have learned, through our drug court experience, that you can force
people to go through drug treatment. Drug court gives defendants a choice
- -- incarceration or treatment. Many people need the threat of jail to
motivate them to change their behavior. A judge, working with a treatment
provider, closely monitors the progress or relapse of participants, who are
kept honest by regular and random urinalysis tests.

Those who succeed after a year or more of supervision have their cases
dismissed. Those who fail the program are found guilty as charged and serve
their sentence, in county jail or state prison.

We have a success rate in drug court of 40 percent. That's an amazing
statistic when you consider the powerful hold that drugs can have on
people's minds and bodies. Drug court graduates are far less likely to be
re-arrested than those who simply went to jail for their use of drugs. Drug
treatment costs about $2,500 a year, or one-tenth the cost of
incarceration. It also offers hope for redemption to people who are
otherwise facing a miserable future of addiction and incarceration.

But only a fraction of those in need of treatment can be served by drug
courts, and only a dozen of our 39 counties even have one.

We need a balance of treatment and sanctions. The 2002 Legislature has
stepped up to the plate with a bold approach that signals a new direction
in our drug policy. They did so with bipartisan support and a pledge of
state funding that fulfills an old promise that treatment would work
hand-in-hand with law enforcement. The bill provides the stable state
funding that counties need in order to make drug treatment available within
their criminal justice systems.

This is the good news from Olympia.