IS WAR ON DRUGS RUNNING OUT OF MUNITIONS?

Reducing Drug Abuse Requires More Help From Criminal Justice System, Ex-DEA Official Says

The debate over illicit drugs heated up in the last month when two
groups -- a U.S. Senate subcommittee and a collection of prominent
leaders from around the globe -- suggested the "War on Drugs" is a failure.

Locally, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle told a lunchtime
rally last month that "drugs and the failed war on drugs have
devastated lives, families and communities. For too long we've treated
drug use as a criminal justice issue rather than a public issue, which
is what it is."

Former DEA administrator and former director of the Illinois
Department of Corrections Peter Bensinger promptly responded with
letters to the editors of major newspapers, including the Tribune.

Bensinger said the sentencing disparity for crack cocaine versus
powder cocaine has narrowed, as has the recidivism rate of offenders
who participate in drug court.

"If you want to lower the prison rate and rearrest rate," he said in
an interview last week, "have the parolees go to a different
neighborhood, get a job, get them drug tested and get them a probation
officer who can actually see them."

Reducing drug abuse requires treatment, prevention, rehabilitation and
law enforcement, he added.

Illinois needs more drug courts, drug testing in public schools and
lower caseloads for probation officers, he said.

Nationally, about 52 percent of all federal prisoners and 1 in 5 state
prisoners are serving sentences for drug crimes.

The Obama administration in 2009 called for ending the "war" on drugs,
saying the time had come to shift focus to prevention and treatment.
Yet drug-related violence continues to surge in Mexico and along the
U.S. border.

More than half of the nearly $26 billion spent last year by the U.S.
to fight the drug trade went for strong interdiction and enforcement
here and abroad.