CRACK: THE ENDURING CRISIS

Lawmakers Debate Lockup Versus Treatment

State and federal lawmakers frequently stress drug treatment for offenders
as a top priority, but funding decisions have yet to catch up to the rhetoric.

Nationally, about half of last year's $18.4 billion federal budget for drug
control was spent on law enforcement.

A January study by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University in New York shows that states spent $81.3 billion in
1998 to deal with drugs, or about 13.1 percent of their overall state
budgets. But only four cents of every dollar spent went toward prevention
and treatment.

In Florida, taxpayers spent $214.70 per person to deal with the effects of
drug and alcohol abuse in 1998, but only $5.28 of that went for abuse
prevention and treatment, the study found.

"The choice for governors and state legislators is this: Either continue to
tax their constituents for funds to shovel up the wreckage of alcohol, drug
and nicotine abuse and addiction, or recast their priorities to focus on
preventing and treating such abuse and addiction," the study said.

The annual cost for rehabilitating a drug addict in a live-in or
residential center averages about half of the cost of locking someone up
for a year, which runs between $20,000 and $40,000, said Joseph Califano,
president of the Columbia University addiction center.

"For a couple of thousand dollars, you can provide treatment to people
while they're in prison or jail," Califano said. "We estimate that about 90
percent of the people behind bars could benefit from treatment, but we're
only providing it to about 1 or 2 percent."

The center's study also said the potential for crime reduction greatly
increases as drug users are rehabilitated. Estimates of property and
violent crimes committed by active drug addicts range from 89 to 191 per
year per addict.

Lawmakers are tough on crack because of the crime and violence it breeds.

Federal law imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of five years with no
parole for possession of five grams or more of crack by a first-time
offender. To get the same penalty for powder cocaine, you'd need a half
kilo, or 500 grams.

The 100-to-1 disparity, which Congress created at the height of the crack
panic in the 1980s, often has been criticized as unjust. Although it's not
common for the federal government to prosecute someone for simple posession.

And states, meanwhile, may set their own penalties. In Florida, there is no
distinction between crack and powder cocaine. Most first-time
drug-possession offenders do not receive jail time, but some do.

The Brevard County prosecutor's office looks at crack on a case-by- case basis.

"There are addicts who want to stop living that lifestyle," said William
Respess, an assistant state attorney whose handled hundreds of crack cases
in his 13 years on the job. "But there is another group of people who
commit any other crime you can mention, including murder. You have to
punish the individual for the act they committed. So it just depends on the
person."