JAIL IS OFTEN WRONG ANSWER

What's the best way to deal with drug addicts?

Most Americans believe it's to jail them, according to a survey released
this week.

Unfortunately, that's exactly the wrong answer, according to the best
available research.

Physician Leadership on National Drug Policy, a bipartisan group of
prominent physicians from the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations, is
working hard to educate the public on this issue.

The group released a study this week that found medical treatment for drug
addiction can work well, can dramatically decrease crime and is
significantly cheaper than sending addicts to jail. Jailing an addict costs
about $26,000 per year. Compare that to the $1,800 for a year of
out-patient drug treatment. Even a year at a residential drug treatment
program s a bargain at about $6,000.

What about protecting society from drug users? A Brown University
researcher found drug treatment can cut crime by 80 percent. Users who
receive treatment are dramatically less likely to return to criminal
behavior.

How effective is the treatment? A University of Pennsylvania researcher
says about as effective as treatment for chronic diseases, such as diabetes
and hypertension. Relapse rates after a year are 50 percent for both the
chronically ill and the drug users.

Even with all this convincing evidence, the federal government spends only
about 20 percent of its drug-control budget to treat addicts. That ought to
go up.

In fact, it would be harmful to society and wasteful of taxpayers' money to
*not* give addicts more treatment.