WAR AGAINST DRUGS OR YOUTH?

To the Editor of The Eagle: As a homeowner in Great Barrington for
more than 30 years, I have watched as the drug problems of the outside
world inevitably surfaced in the Berkshires. But as someone who has
spent his entire career doing drug treatment and related research (I
am professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine), I also knew that
the many strengths of this community (caring families, good schools,
community services for youth, and a wholesome environment) were its
best safeguards against the most severe problems associated with drugs
and young people. So even if kids experimented with drug and alcohol
use (as over 85 percent do) I saw no cause for general alarm. That's
because research clearly shows that most youngsters, especially those
with sound family lives, move away from drugs when they mature. And as
they "get a life," the vast majority of youthful drug users (even of
harder drugs) do not have serious drug problems as adults. But I also
know that aggressive prosecution of the "war on drugs" can become a
war on youthful users and do great harm. Naive and easy to ensnare,
these kids are considered the low-hanging fruit by aggressive drug
prosecutors. This is clearly the case with the 17- and 18-year-olds
swept up in the Great Barrington drug bust.

Following eight months of "buy and bust" operations by undercover
police, 17 young people are charged with school zone violations which
carry mandatory two-year prison sentences, even for minor first
offenses such as buying or selling a single marijuana joint within
1,000 feet of a school zone, although the school is nowhere in sight
of the Triplex lot. This assures the maximum penalty. If they are
found or plead guilty (and even if they never serve a day in prison)
the criminal record itself will cause exclusion from many forms of
education and financial support, from the uniformed services, most
public employment, and from many professional careers and licenses.

Recent research at the Boston University School of Public Health shows
that such use of school-zone drug laws (originally meant to protect
children from drugs when they attend schools) has no effect on drug
use at and around schools. That's because most kids use, buy, and sell
drugs close to where they live, which in many communities means within
1,000 feet of a school. So, not surprisingly, the BU study found that
80 percent of all drug busts fall within such school zones.

However, the study also found, most local police exercise judgment in
charging school-zone violations, and most prosecutors "break down" or
dispense with these charges in first offender cases. But not so in the
Great Barrington case where DA David Capeless insists on these charges
and the mandatory prison terms they imply.

Drug enforcement people often talk about "messages," but what message
are the citizens of Berkshire County sending (via our elected
officials) by so severely threatening these young lives in pursuit of
some drug war illusion? In a world full of huge crimes and injustices
that cry out for relief, should these kids' crimes be the focus of
such vengeful adult behavior? Is that the message the adult community
of Great Barrington wants their elected official to send to our
children? Not in my name please!

Ernest Drucker

Great Barrington