DRUG REHAB, NOT PRISON

Cut crime. Save money. Restore shattered lives. All three goals could
be accomplished under a proposal to treat small-time Colorado drug
abusers rather than imprisoning them.

The concept has worked phenomenally well in Denver, where 90 percent
of those who graduate from Denver Drug Court remain arrest-free for at
least a year, and the remainder aren't arrested for severe crimes.

Now state Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, suggests a similar but different
approach statewide. His proposal, being considered by the
legislature's Interim Committee on Criminal Sentencing, would reduce
the level of an offense for someone caught with a small amount of
drugs, then use the money saved on prison cells to provide good treatment.

Currently, someone caught with one-tenth of 1 ounce of heroin or
cocaine is charged with a Class 3 felony --- the same as armed
robbery, sexual assault or burglary.

"We're trying to change a paradigm of thinking about people who use
drugs as being criminals rather than people who have a disease and
need treatment," Gordon says.

But in Colorado, those who suffer the disease of addiction often are
imprisoned but not treated.

About 75 percent of state prisoners have a substance abuse problem,
but only half of those abusers get treatment, and many of those don't
get the intensive treatment they need.

Each prisoner costs the state $26,000 a year. If just 100 to 200
people were kept out of prison, the state would save $2.6 million to
$5.2 million. And if that money were spent to rehabilitate drug
abusers properly, society could expect a sharp drop in the number of
crimes committed by people trying to obtain drug money.

Communities also would see fractured families reunited and seemingly
lost souls returned to productive lives as a drug-free lifestyle
becomes the preferred choice of former druggies.

Our current policies don't work.

When a drug addict is locked away without sufficient rehabilitation,
the state virtually guarantees that the prisoner eventually will
return to a life of addiction and crime.

When an addict is given probation instead, he'll keep using drugs and
continue on a criminal track because he hasn't gotten the treatment he
needs.

Thus do we continue to rack up high prison costs and increased crime.
Even police and prosecutors tend to recognize this hopeless cycle.

While public safety is the chief concern, "there may be a better way
to marshal public funds and use them wisely and effectively," says
Peter Weir, executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys Council.

We support Gordon's sane approach to criminal justice reform, and we
urge legislators, police and prosecutors to do so as well.