MCCAIN WOULD FOCUS ON LAW ENFORCEMENT, WHILE OBAMA WOULD EMPHASIZE TREATMENT

This is the sixth and last in a weekly series of stories leading up to
the presidential election examining the candidates' positions on
various issues that affect northeast Indiana residents.

Barack Obama used cocaine and marijuana as a teenager and says he
could have ended up in prison if he didn't straighten out. John
McCain's wife stole from her charity to feed her addiction to
prescription painkillers, and he frequently sprinkles 12-Step
philosophy language in his speeches and books.

Both candidates have a personal connection to drugs, the common
denominator in most crime - as well as prison overcrowding in the U.S.
and a primary source of political instability in places like
Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia and Mexico. But their approaches to
dealing with addiction and crime differ sharply.

McCain's approach is weighted toward enforcement and incarceration.
While opposing imprisoning first-time drug users and supporting
prisoner re-entry programs, he supports mandatory minimum sentences
for drug dealers, less judicial sentencing discretion, executing drug
kingpins and increasing drug interdiction on the Mexican border. The
72-year-old cancer survivor opposes allowing cancer patients to use
prescription marijuana for medical treatment or to allow heroin
addicts to receive methadone treatment.

"Illegal narcotics are a scourge that I have fought against my entire
legislative career and I believe this fight must begin with prevention
and enforcement," McCain - a Republican U.S. senator from Arizona
since 1987 - wrote in response to a survey from the International
Association of Chiefs of Police released Oct. 6. "As president, I
would continue these efforts to ensure that our nation's children are
protected from the influence of illegal drugs and the drug peddlers
are brought to justice for their crimes."

Obama, a 47-year-old Democratic U.S. senator from Illinois since 2005,
supported stiffer sentences for marijuana possession as an Illinois
state senator and more money for combating methamphetamine dealing as
a U.S. senator. But Obama's platform puts more emphasis on drug
courts, drug treatment, needle-exchange programs and alternatives to
incarceration for drug addicts partially because of his own drug use.

"I say to myself that if I had been growing up in low-income
neighborhoods in Chicago, there is no reason to think that I wouldn't be
in jail today, that I could have easily taken the wrong turn," Obama
told author and Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell in "Obama: From
Promise to Power." "That is something that I am very mindful of and it
is something that motivates me."

Obama discussed his drug use in his 1995 memoir, "Dreams From My
Father." McCain's wife, Cindy, has spoken candidly about her addiction
to prescription painkillers that led her to steal drugs from a
charity. No charges were filed, but she reimbursed the organization
for the cost of the pills, according to The New York Times.

Both McCain and Obama oppose legalizing drugs, a position advocated by
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of current and former law
enforcers who support ending the approximately $40 billion-per-year
drug war.

"It corrupts our police," said group spokesman James Gerach, who
supports Obama but stressed he is not speaking for the nonpartisan
group. "It undermines law enforcement."

More than half of all federal prisoners and about 20 percent of state
prisoners were imprisoned on drug charges in 2006, according to Bureau
of Justice statistics. In 1982, the year John McCain was sworn in as a
U.S. representative, the U.S. prison population was about 500,000. It
was approximately 2.3 million last year.

Prison reform advocates like Marc Mauer, executive director of The
Sentencing Project, say increased drug laws and stiffer sentencing,
positions advocated by McCain, are responsible for the spike.

Mauer said about two-thirds of federal taxpayer money spent on drug
prevention has gone for enforcement and imprisonment, with one-third
for prevention and treatment.

"That's not the balance that we need. If we can reduce demand, then
that takes care of a lot of the supply problem, and we can be both
more compassionate and cost effective," said Mauer, whose group is not
endorsing either candidate. "Within the court system we now have drug
courts in most areas of the country, but they still don't have
anywhere near the resources they need to get people into high-quality
treatment programs."

Judge John F. Surbeck, who oversees Allen County's drug court and
prisoner re-entry program, said the Bush administration did a good job
of supporting alternatives to incarceration and prisoner
reintegration, which he hopes the next president will continue.

"When people are in the penitentiary, somebody makes their decisions
for them 24/7. They're then released and all of a sudden they have to
make all their decisions, and people just don't operate that way,"
Surbeck said. "If you build more prisons, we'll fill 'em up. I've
become more and more convinced that prisons are for the most dangerous
people."

While Surbeck praised the Bush administration, Neil Moore, executive
director of the Indiana Criminal Justice Center, said the
administration underfunded Indiana's share of the Byrne-JAG (Justice
Administration Grant) that pays for drug courts and drug task forces
by 35 percent this year.

Moore, Fort Wayne police chief from 1988 to 1997, said the next
president must fully fund the grant and provide more money for
community policing and victim aid.

"I want to see implementation," he said. "I want to see something that
is tangible and not rhetoric."

Fort Wayne Police Chief Rusty York isn't optimistic about getting much
federal money, regardless of who is elected. York said the Bush
administration spent too much money on homeland security and not
enough for local crime fighting. In 2000, York said the city received
about $300,000 in federal money. It now splits about $70,000 with the
county.

York said he recently attended a Police Executive Research Forum with
representatives from both candidates. Neither side promised much
money. However, he said the Obama representatives promised more
community policing money. Obama supported increasing by $1.15 billion
funding for Community Oriented Policing Services, while McCain voted
against increases in 1996, 2004 and 2005.

Allen County Sheriff Ken Fries supports McCain. Fries likes McCain's
support for more money for sheriff's departments to help federal
agencies arrest and deport illegal immigrants. He also believes he's
tougher on crime than Obama.

"I want somebody that's been tested that I would be able to have
confidence in, that, if we as local police across the nation need
something to fight crime, that they will do whatever they can do to
get it for us," Fries said. "Because the way we look at it, crime
knows no politics."