ON EFFECTIVE DRUG REHAB PROGRAMS

Dear Editor,

Your editorial on drug treatment costs and the need to spend tax
dollars on effective drug rehab programs (Top Problem, NDN 24 April)
is the kind of probing editorializing that good newspapers engage in;
looking behind the hype for less obvious factors bearing on the problem.

Not many people know that everyone arrested for criminal possession of
illegal drugs is automatically treated as if they are addicted to the
drug found in their possession. In lieu of jail or prison time, first
time offenders are frequently offered drug rehab to cure their
so-called "addiction" problem.

The truth is that a small percentage of drug users are addicted to the
drugs they choose to use recreationally, illegal or otherwise. Imagine
treating everyone who emerged from a liquor store with alcohol in
their possession as an alcoholic, and requiring them to complete drug
rehab or go to prison. Pretty silly, even though alcohol is society's
most problematic recreational drug by an exponential factor.

Correcting this misdirection of precious tax dollars would mean a
likely abundance of drug rehab money for treating those arrested who
are truly addicted and in need of medical attention. As we turn from
incarceration to treatment for the medical problems caused by drug
use, we must factor common sense into the drug rehab equation, or
treatment will become the same bottomless money pit that interdiction
and incarceration have become.

sincerely,
Arthur Sobey