DRUG WAR BEST FOUGHT THROUGH TREATMENT, NOT INCARCERATION

The recent reporting by the Times-News of heroin use among our local youth
discusses a topic that touches us all. The loss of young people's innocence
and sometimes their lives because of heroin use has a rippling effect in
each community. The sadness of parents losing their young for any reason is
harsh enough. Losing our children in an unworkable drug war, however, is
another kind of tragedy.

The recent article "H is for heroin, heartache," reports speakers at the
RAD (Residents Attacking Drugs, Inc.) program at Allegany College
testifying that kids can't get into treatment programs and are turned away
from local hospitals. Just like in any war, there are always innocent
victims. As we continue to engorge our prison camps with the nation's
young, we also cannot properly fund treatment programs for drug abusers. To
the American way of thinking, it's more important to put young people in
prison then it is to help make their lives more useful and meaningful.
Apparently, it's more acceptable to send the message to young people that
"we will lock you up" rather than "we want to help you." There is another
popular saying "put your money where your mouth is."

Year by year, the same parents and officials who lament the loss of our
young to drug use, support and elect people who funnel billions into a
prison industrial economy (PIE). How big does this PIE need to get before
we realize there are no pie slices to help our kids? Perhaps we should cut
the pie equitably so that more funding can be earmarked for prevention and
treatment programs that would be more useful than super-funding more
prisons. Historically, each war carries its own set of lessons.

What have we learned from the prohibition war? Maybe it's more important to
ask what we have not learned. We haven't yet learned that prison does more
harm than good to young people. We haven't learned to make prevention and
treatment available without stigma. We haven't learned that marijuana is
not the gateway drug, but that any drug (legal or illegal) has the
potential to be a gateway drug. We haven't learned that it isn't heroin
that kills, it is the lack of systems for young people that turn them to
drugs for wont of nothing better to do.

It is shameful that even now, a kid has to commit a robbery just so he can
get arrested to find safety from heroin pushers. Doesn't that tell anybody
anything? If you are really interested in helping young people with drug
problems, then stop blaming the false echoes (to coin a phrase from Tom
Robertson). Instead, elect officials who will give our kids a greater slice
of the pie.

Dave Crockett

Mount Savage