FIGHT DRUG WAR BY TREATING, NOT JUST JAILING, ADDICTS

Current Focus Isn't Working, Prominent Doctors Say

Leadership from the presidential candidates is urgently needed on a
critical issue: our nation's raging drug epidemic.

Last year, drug abuse killed 20,000 Americans. It's the leading cause
of incarceration, responsible for 60 percent of our current federal
prison population. Drug abuse is prevalent, growing and underestimated
in virtually every community across America. Portland alone saw 114
heroin-related deaths last year -- triple the number a decade before.

The sad fact is that our decades-long, criminal-justice-focused effort
to tackle drug abuse has not succeeded. We are losing the war on
drugs. We need to fight the battle differently.

Our political leaders must lead the way in fashioning a new approach
to solving this problem. It is going to take leadership, vision and
courage. But it is also going to take a new approach.

That's why the three of us, former Surgeon General Antonio Novello,
former FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler and more than 30 other
physicians have formed the nonpartisan Physician Leadership on
National Drug Policy.

We want a new approach to drug addiction -- one that views it as a
medical and public health problem, not just a criminal one. Drawn from
across the ideological and political spectrum, our group is united by
the belief that a successful national drug-control policy in fact
requires a new approach.

A new drug policy must recognize that drug addiction is not just a
criminal-justice problem but also a medical and public health problem.
The expertise of the medical and public health communities must help
to solve it.

Our leadership group starts with the premise, founded on a growing
body of research, that drug addiction is a treatable disease similar
to other chronic medical conditions like diabetes and asthma.

Successful treatment helps younger abusers get their lives back on
track and facilitates adults' return to productive work. It also
lessens the burden on emergency care and reduces crime, making
communities safer. And treatment is unequivocally cheaper and more
effective than jail. It costs $25,900 to jail a drug addict for one
year. Regular outpatient treatment costs only $1,800 and has a much
greater likelihood of success.

Federal spending for prevention and treatment must increase: In some
regions the waiting list to enter a drug treatment program is more
than six months long.

Making our resources reflect our priorities, even when it's not
popular. That's leadership.

Of course, stopping a problem before it starts is always the most
effective solution. So prevention strategies must include renewed
efforts to educate our nation's youth about the negative consequences
of using drugs.

Our physicians' group also calls on states to require that insurance
providers cover substance-abuse treatment at the same levels as other
medical illnesses. Research has proven that the cost of this
substance-abuse insurance parity for one person is $5.11 per year, or
43 cents per month.

Doing the right thing, even if no one else is on board. That's real
leadership.

There is a role for the criminal justice system here, too --
determining what procedures can reduce supply and demand. We also
propose better coordination among the criminal justice, medical and
public health systems to encourage collaboration. Drug courts, which
provide an alternative to incarceration, are but one example of what
collaboration has already yielded.

Building on the old, incorporating the new. That's leadership.

The challenge for our elected officials and candidates is clear. We
need leadership on this issue, and we need it now.

Dr. Louis W. Sullivan is a former secretary of Health and Human
Services; Dr. June E. Osborn is chairwoman of Physician Leadership on
National Drug Policy and Dr. Donald D. Trunkey is chairman of the
Department of Surgery at Oregon Health Sciences University. The
organization's Web site is www.plndp.org.