CARE VS. PUNISHMENT

Drug War Priorities Favor Prosecution Over Treatment

A new study conducted for a Chicago university questions the priorities of
the anti-drug effort in Chicago.

According to the Roosevelt University study, for every $1 spent on
treatment of drug abuse in Cook County, about $6 is spent on law
enforcement, prosecution and incarceration.

As staff writer Alice Hohl reported Monday, the situation is partly a
result of the nationwide "law-and-order mentality." It is the driving force
behind the war on drugs that spends billions of dollars each year in an
effort to arrest drug users and low-level distributors.

One result of this approach is that many drug users go to jail, serve their
sentences and return to the community looking to satisfy their drug
cravings, often with new criminal skills they acquired in prison.

And they instantly become candidates to get back into the high-cost
criminal justice system.

The Roosevelt report concludes that the imbalance in priorities can be
blamed on the managed care system of health insurance. Insurance companies
refuse to treat drug addiction like other illnesses, so detoxification and
other forms of treatment are not eligible for coverage.

Why should insurance companies have any interest in spending their
resources on health care for individuals who can just as easily be diverted
into the criminal justice system where their "room and board" will be paid
for by taxpayers?

By the same token, elected policy-makers know that voters support spending
on police, prosecutors and prisons, but have few expectations about
publicly funded health care.

We are not suggesting that drug crimes should not be prosecuted. But a
greater effort needs to be made to differentiate between criminals who
should be prosecuted and drug users who need treatment rather than
incarceration for their own good and the good of society.