DITCH THESE DRUG LAWS

New Jersey is missing out on an excellent (if necessarily incomplete)
remedy for its fiscal crisis. Sadly, the only reason is that the
state's elected officials have been too scared to touch it.

The remedy is to change the state's misguided drug laws. They were
designed years ago to reduce illegal drug use by forcing judges to
imprison just about every nonviolent offender who came before them.
Not only have the laws not solved the drug problem, they have been
counterproductive and terribly unfair. Thousands of young drug users
have been put in prison, reducing their chances for treatment at an
age when it could turn their lives around.

During the past decade, the judiciary has improved the situation
somewhat by establishing special drug courts. Selected nonviolent
drug offenders are placed on probation, monitored closely and treated
for drug dependency. But over all, the state's harsh drug laws
continue to fill its prisons beyond capacity and cost it hundreds of
millions each year.

The most egregious of these laws is one imposing a mandatory prison
term, usually three years, on anyone selling drugs within 1,000 feet
of a school, even if youngsters are not involved.

There is hope that Trenton may do something. The state attorney
general, Anne Milgram, is working out details of a broad new plan to
fight crime. And Gov. Jon Corzine, who appointed her, says he wants
the plan to emphasize new ways, short of prison, for dealing with
nonviolent drug violators. Mr. Corzine has long been an advocate of
expanded drug treatment.

Whether the Legislature will go along with this is a big question,
however. Up to now, a majority of lawmakers have been afraid to act,
fearful they will be accused of being soft on crime. But many other
states with fiscal problems -- including Michigan, Pennsylvania,
Mississippi and Texas -- are seizing on this way of saving money, and
Mississippi and Texas are hardly known for being soft on crime.

Neither are New Jersey's prosecutors. Several of them, however,
support treatment for low-level drug offenders, rather than mandatory
imprisonment. Many prosecutors will tell you that the emphasis on
putting drug offenders in prison distracts them from dealing with
serious crime. In Newark and the rest of Essex County, prosecutors
presented more than 8,600 cases to grand juries last year; more than
40 percent of them involved nonviolent drug offenses.

Drug treatment does not guarantee a good outcome for offenders. But
as the drug courts have shown, it is far more effective in preventing
recidivism among nonviolent offenders than prison. And it costs far
less to treat a drug offender than the estimated $34,000 a year it
costs to imprison one. The worst course is what exists now: thousands
of young drug offenders getting released from prison, where they
received no effective treatment. That only increases the chances that
these once-nonviolent offenders will go on to commit more serious crimes.

The more sensible course would be to stop imprisoning these low-level
offenders, divert some of the savings for treatment, and use the
millions of dollars left over to reduce the fiscal deficit. It is
time that Trenton learned this lesson.