DISTRICT ATTORNEY IS COMMITTED TO TREATING USERS, JAILING DEALERS

Editor:

This is in response to a recent letter to The Daily Sentinel
advocating a mandatory 10-year prison sentence or a ban from
returning to Mesa County for drug-use and possession cases.

I take this statement to be venting the frustration we all share.
Such a prison sentence would cost so much as to bankrupt the state or
require all non-drug, violent and sex offenders to be released to
accommodate the increase in drug offenders. Further, a ban on
returning to Mesa County would be unconstitutional, and would merely
result in our problem going elsewhere.

I'd like to explain the thought process of the District Attorney's
Office in supporting a meth treatment program. The Methamphetamine
Task Force conducted extensive research, which led to the White Paper
released last week. We have learned that approximately one in five
users in the jail started using at age 14 or younger, and three out
of five began using prior to turning 21. We want to give these people
a chance to turn their lives around. Absent a treatment program that
is financially available, it would not be possible.

We have also learned that our county can spend between $200,000 and
$300,000 on a meth addict who has kids, for everything from law
enforcement to the Department of Human Services. There is also a cost
to the community, through crimes that victimize our citizens, when
the drug problem is not addressed.

Make no mistake. District Attorney Pete Hautzinger intends to seek
lengthy prison sentences for those who profit from the drug trade.
The DA's office successfully argued for a 14-year prison sentence a
few weeks ago. Drug dealers are not eligible for the treatment program.

We have an overburdened prison system and there is little to be done
about first-time drug offenders walking the streets on probation.
Jail and prison aren't deterrents to people willing to put such a
variety of toxic chemicals in their bodies.

Nobody knows for sure what the answer is, but what we have been doing
is not working. An effective treatment program, accessible to an
addict, has promise to decrease the cost meth is having on our
governmental resources, the victimization of countless unknowing
property owners and can, we hope, save some lives.

Dan Rubinstein

Chief Deputy District Attorney

Grand Junction