THE ANSWER IS TREATMENT

More laws won't fix addiction problems.

Thirty-plus years of a failed U.S. drug war has proved that lengthy prison
sentences and tougher law enforcement measures don't stop drug consumption.

The proper solution is treatment: thorough, extensive, free, on-demand
treatment for any drug or alcohol user who decides it is time to clean up.
Yet federal and state governments continue to divert precious taxpayer
resources to expensive jails and anti-drug law enforcement efforts, when
expanded treatment would be cheaper and more effective.

Consider the public health effects of methamphetamine, the subject of
Press-Telegram reporter Jenny Marder's three-part series that concludes
today. Meth use, Marder reports, has become a serious problem in Long
Beach's gay community because it provides a cheap, long-lasting high that
gives users a sense of invincibility and heightened libido. Those effects
lead to higher rates of unprotected sex, which can be a death sentence in
the gay community.

Meth is the latest form of a stimulant, amphetamine, that has been around
for many decades. Drug prohibition has made it more dangerous for users and
the environment, but hasn't made it any less available.

Amphetamine pills were consumed widely, and legally, in the 1950s,
manufactured and sold by drug companies. Congress' attempts to curb illegal
use in the 1970s drove amphetamine production underground, where it was
cooked up in clandestine, dangerous homemade labs and distributed by biker
gangs and other criminal enterprises. After Congress banned a key
ingredient in the late 1980s, suppliers began using cold medicines to make
the drug, and to increase profits, began using potentially dangerous
additives. The drug is most often produced in home labs with hazardous,
toxic byproducts.

Though some politicians are now calling for tight restrictions on cold
medicine, some of which may be appropriate, that is likely to only curtail
home labs, not use of the drug. Oklahoma, which led the nation in
dramatically restricting the sale of cold medicines, has succeeded in
cutting back domestic production, but the Mexican mafia quickly assumed
distribution of the state's meth supply.

An appropriate response to meth addition is to shift public resources
toward treatment and education in the communities where use is most
problematic. Nationwide, meth doesn't appear to outpace other lesser-used
illegal drugs. (The federal government estimates there are 1.5 million
regular meth users, which puts it in about the same league as heroin, with
750,000 to 1 million chronic users, and makes it less popular than cocaine,
which has 2.7 million regular users.) But it has hit certain communities
terribly hard.

The names of certain drugs may change over time, but the problem of
addiction does not. And America's 30-year attempt to stop drug use by
cutting supply simply hasn't worked.

A more sensible approach to drug addiction, cutting demand through
education and widely available treatment, will work. That is, when
politicians, and the voters who elect them, finally decide to give it a chance.