GROWING METH PROBLEM CALLS FOR REHAB APPROACH

The law of supply and demand applies to markets in the underworld as well as
to those aboveboard in the world of buying and selling goods and services.

That goes for such things as cars and clothes, also for illicit drugs. It
means, for example, if no consumer demand for opium, no production and
supply from Afghanistan. Or, no demand for heroin, no supply from Colombia.
No demand for meth, no supply in West Virginia.

State police and federal agents are busier now than ever in dismantling meth
labs and busting dealers in the Kanawha Valley and other regions of the
state. Demand for meth rises, along with supply to meet demand.

At the rate of things, meth threatens to put the old social nemesis cocaine
in the shade in places like Charleston and Chicago. But I understand that
crack cocaine still sells as the drug of choice for blacks and powder
cocaine as the drug of choice for whites.

By any measure, meth has become a problem for many high schools around the
country. The problem indicates that the price is right, so to speak. It fits
the pocketbooks of young people from a seemingly endless source of supply.

More and more, meth is associated with violent crime and fatal overdoses.
The fact is that street crime and violent deaths led to tough federal
sentencing guidelines for cocaine dealers and users.

However, the guidelines mete out longer punishment for crack than for powder
cocaine. Thus, an unmistakable reason why prisons bulge with black inmates,
about 40 percent of whom are serving time for drug violations, according to
public records.

Obviously, such sentencing guidelines don't apply to meth offenders.

I read the other day about a meth dealer who had been busted three times in
the Valley, but was free on bail when arrested the fourth time on meth
trafficking charges.

It's almost old hat to say that the public spends far more tax money trying
to stop drug trafficking than on means to reduce demand. It matters not
whether the supply comes from Afghanistan, Colombia or West Virginia.

Despite praise and jubilation over the vote in Afghanistan, reports are that
warlords in the country have the last word on the growing of poppies to make
opium. True or not, demand will tell.

Shortly before her release from prison in Alderson, Martha Stewart said that
inmates there for drug violations would be better served by rehabilitation
services than by serving time.

She spoke to the heart of the matter of cutting demand for meth and the
rest, through public education and rehabilitation. She took into account the
law of supply and demand.

Moreover, she pledged her effort to the service of turning around the
time-worn approach to the drug problem, from emphasis on punishment to
rehabilitation and prevention.

The growing meth problem cries out for the rehab approach, which by most
accounts would cost taxpayers less and relieve the overcrowded prison
system.

Nonetheless, there are those taxpayers who would rather see addicts,
dealers, suppliers and all behind bars, if only for a growth industry with
investment opportunities.

Peeks is a former Gazette business/labor editor.