FOCUS ON TREATMENT

I recently read a column in the Times Record News titled "Blame Colombia?:
Drug-consuming countries should do more to solve the drug problem" (William
Raspberry, Sept. 2, page 7B).

If you missed it, the subject was the $1.3 billion going to Colombia from
the United States to help stop the production of drug addicts.

He's right! This is where we need to put the billion dollars: on our own
problem. If we stop all production from Colombia, someone else will supply
the demand.

This war on drugs in nothing new. In 1969, President Nixon declared war on
drugs, and the budget was $81 million - half was spent on enforcement, half
on treatment. By the late '80s, the Reagan and Bush administrations spent
80 percent of theirs on enforcement and the rest on treatment. Today, 75
percent is spent on enforcement.

In the past 10 years the federal government has spent $150 billion dollars
fighting drugs. Since 1980, the total number of people in prison on drug
offenses has risen from 50,000 to 400,000 (this is not counting
drug-related crimes), and most are confined at an annual cost per capita
that would pay tuition, room and board of a private college.

In 1999, the nation had an estimated 14.8 million hardcore drug addicts.
This is only going to grow. We don't need 50 percent or less being spent on
treatment. We need 100 percent dedication to treatment.

This is something the United States of America must do together. We will
make a difference.

To quote Mr. Raspberry: "Don't tell me it can't be done. We've done it with
cigarettes, we've even managed to do it with teen pregnancy. Shouldn't we
at least try to do it with drugs?"

John Drullinger Jr., Wichita Falls