LAWSUITS A DETERRENT TO DOPE-PEDDLING? NOT LIKELY

Drug dealers risk being killed, robbed and put in prison for their perverse
business practices. Yet the trade thrives. Do you think the threat of a
civil lawsuit will curtail dope peddling?

Mark Earley apparently does.

The gubernatorial candidate and former state attorney general unsheathed
this tough-looking-but-pointless sword last week in announcing an anti-drug
initiative while on the campaign trail.

His "Virginia Expel" proposal includes some excellent ideas, including more
money for drug treatment in state prisons and through community service
boards. Such funds are desperately needed, especially in Hampton Roads.

The GOP candidate also wants to add the teen-rave hallucinogen Ecstacy and
prescription narcotics to a list of drugs for which dealers can be punished
under a state law targeting kingpins. Another needed action.

But to suggest that allowing civil lawsuits from the families of drug
abusers will somehow deter street dealing is wishful thinking at best.

The move may sound strong to voters weary of violent drug crime and ruined
lives, but as a practical matter it likely would achieve little more than
clogged courts and empty jury awards.

Remember that the government can seize assets from convicted dealers. So
how could they pay off civil penalties for drug treatment costs, lost
wages, emotional trauma, etc.?

Trial lawyers surely would like more opportunities to sue someone,
especially bad guys like drug dealers. But if deterrence is the goal,
Earley is off-base.

California became one of the first states, in 1997, to hold dealers liable
for the costs and personal havoc that drug addictions invariably bring to
families. The law stemmed largely from a crusade by actor Carroll O'Conner,
of Archie Bunker fame, whose son died from a cocaine overdose.

O'Conner blamed a dealer, instead of the addiction his son could never
shake, for the untimely death.

Few other states have followed suit. Indeed many, including California, are
rethinking get-tough policies -- including long, mandatory sentences -- as
the answer to small-time drug trafficking and possession. Yet Earley now
wants to add another layer to an overburdened penal system.

During the 1990s, while throw-away-the-key became the legal norm, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration estimates that drug use among youths
doubled and significantly increased among young adults, while heroin use
among all Americans tripled.

It's time to start listening to professionals and drug counselors and stop
playing politics with drugs.