TREAT, DON'T JAIL, DRUG ABUSERS

We appear to have been doing the war on drugs wrong all along.

According to a new study, anyway, treating drug addicts is lots cheaper and
far more effective than incarcerating them. Unfortunately, this country has
for decades been emphasizing the latter, spending roughly four out of every
five dollars on interdiction and incarceration rather than treatment. It's
time to start reversing the ratio.

The study was conducted by a bipartisan panel of public health experts -
doctors and scientists from the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations.
It found, among other things, that the cost of treating a drug addict
ranges from only $1,800 to $6,800 per year, as opposed to $25,900 for a
year in jail. (And that's not even counting the cost of cell construction.)

Treatment was also found to be a far more effective way to reduce
recidivism than simple incarceration. A study of 1,600 drug abusers found
that only 25 percent of those undergoing treatment were rearrested for
drug-related crimes, compared with 62 percent among a group of untreated
abusers.

Considering that drugs or alcohol are a factor in upward of 80 percent of
the crimes committed in this country, it goes without saying that reducing
abuse of these substances would have an extremely positive effect on the
crime rate.

It would also be an invaluable public health tool, since drug addicts are
at considerable risk of catching and transmitting the AIDS virus and
hepatitis.

This isn't to suggest that everyone who commits a drug-related crime be
spared jail time, or let out early, only that a lot more money needs to be
spent on treatment, both in and out of the penal system. That, by itself,
will help reduce crime, and the need for - and costs associated with -
building more jails and keeping people in them.

According to Philip Lee, a former assistant Health secretary, a dollar
invested in drug treatment can save $7 worth of societal and medical costs.
Even if that claim is grossly exaggerated, there's undoubtedly some money
to be saved by treating, rather than incarcerating, substance abusers. It's
also a lot more humane - and productive - an approach to the problem.