A BETTER APPROACH TO DRUG ABUSE

Everyone seems eager to reduce violent crime. Mayor Norquist's Crime
Reduction Commission is meeting. The Milwaukee Safety Coalition, which
includes the Milwaukee Police Department and many local ministers, is
meeting. Recommendations are due out by the beginning of August. City
residents deserve serious recommendations from these two groups. I
attended four of the six public hearings held by the mayor's
commission and read the coalition's report on its trip to Boston.

Clearly, many residents are not willing to write off and incarcerate
the current generation of young men in our city. Safety, yes, but
given declining crime rates and a good economy for many, the old
get-tough slogans of the so-called "war on drugs" no longer control
the public debate about urban poverty and crime. On the contrary, even
conservative pundits such as William F. Buckley acknowledge that the
"war on drugs" leads to widespread violations of civil liberties and
undermines the trust that is needed for effective community policing.

Treating drug abuse as a serious public health problem, instead of
incarcerating low-level drug dealers, would start to repair the
neighborhoods that have been devastated as much by the "war on drugs"
as by the public health consequences of drug use.

To be taken seriously, the commission and the coalition should
re-evaluate past reliance on law enforcement rather than public health
strategies to combat drug abuse.

Christopher Ahmuty,
Executive director ACLU of Wisconsin Milwaukee