TREATING DRUG USERS BEATS PRISON COSTS

DECADES after America declared "war on drugs," there are encouraging signs
that we may be getting smart about how it can be won.

For years, the focus was on blocking shipments of heroin and cocaine into
the country. The effort continues, but so does the drug traffic.

When frustration with that approach bubbled over, the next move was to crack
down on the users. "Lock 'em up and throw away the key" became the new
mantra. States went on a prison-building spree and discovered how expensive
that would be. And too many of the prisoners, when released, went right
back to stealing to sustain their habit.

During all this time, a small chorus kept saying, "When you catch them, get
them treatment and keep testing them to be sure they stay clean." Now, more
states are trying it -- and finding that it works.

The most dramatic shift in policy occurred in Arizona, and it came as the
result of a voter initiative, not something the elected officials decided.
In fact, many of the provisions of that 1996 initiative -- financed by a
handful of millionaires -- remain bitterly controversial. It decriminalized
marijuana and a wide variety of hard drugs, a step retired Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, the federal "drug czar," vehemently opposed -- and still does.

But another part of Proposition 200 required that people convicted of drug
possession for the first or second time be placed on probation and in
treatment, rather than going to jail. A report on the first year of the
program, issued late last month by the Arizona Supreme Court, offered real
encouragement.

Of the 2,622 offenders diverted from prison, more than three-quarters (77
percent) tested drug-free at the end of their treatment programs. The same
percentage made at least one payment toward the cost of their treatment, as
the new procedure specifies.

The program appears to be substantially cheaper than putting people in
prison. The court estimates that treating and testing these people was $2.5
million less costly than jailing them would have been.

It long has been known that drug abuse is the major factor in swelling our
prison and jail population almost to 2 million. But few of them get
treatment. The astonishing figure cited by Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen
Kennedy Townsend, the coordinator of her state's anti-crime program, is that
half of the country's entire consumption of heroin and cocaine is by people
who are on probation or parole. If that is even remotely accurate,
targeting this population for treatment could significantly reduce the
demand that keeps the international drug traffickers in business.

Maryland has begun a program aimed at getting all 25,000 of the state's
parolees and probationers into a rigorous testing regimen. The first results
on the people who began the twice-a-week tests last autumn "are so good
we're leery about them," said Adam Gelb, Townsend's policy director. After
three months, the percentage testing positive dropped from 40 percent to
just 7.4 percent -- a drop of more than four-fifths.

Before this "Break the Cycle" program began, Gelb said, a probation officer
could order only about seven drug tests a month for a typical caseload of
100 probationers. If someone failed, it was up to a judge to set the
punishment -- and often, overworked judges just voiced a warning to "clean
up your act."

In the new system, the courts have pre-authorized an escalating set of
penalties for each failed test, climaxing in a return to jail. With the
certainty of punishment for failure and the potential of shortened probation
for staying clean, the incentives to seek treatment are vastly greater. Like
her Arizona counterparts, Townsend does not want to claim more than a
promising start for the program. "It could provide a way out of the
paralyzing and stupid debate between treatment and incarceration," she said.
"A combination of sanctions and treatment works best."

McCaffrey agrees. In congressional testimony last week, he said it was time
to abandon the phrase "war on drugs," because "addicted Americans are not
the enemy. They require treatment. Wars are waged with weapons and
soldiers. Prevention and treatment are the primary tools in our fight
against drugs."

And they offer hope of success.