ADDICTS IN JAIL

This was no bolt from the blue. Headline: "Study ties drugs, alcohol to crime."

A report by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse finds that
80 percent of prison inmates are where they are in part because of
substance abuse. If they aren't there directly because of drug possession
or sales, they are there because substance abuse made them desperate or
violent.

Once again, this is no surprise. So you'd think that treating addiction,
starting with detoxification, would have a high priority in society. It
doesn't.

In fact, the only way to guarantee that one will get drug treatment is to
end up behind bars. There has to be a better way. Until this nation
asserts a commitment to providing drug treatment to every- one who needs
it, particularly young people, the colateral damage caused by drug
addiction will continue to pack our prisons and cost taxpayers.

Society needs to start concentrating on treating drug addicts and
alcoholics before they up the ante with the costs of incarcerating them and
treating them behind bars.