DRUG TREATMENT

The final proposal will not be delivered to legislators until next year,
but a preliminary report suggests the Kansas Sentencing Commission is right
on target with a shift in focus from prison to treatment for nonviolent
drug offenders.

That change in focus acknowledges that our present judicial approach is
inconsistent when it comes to drug convictions and also may confirm the
hunch that the system may punish drug crimes but does not attack the
underlying sources. Treatment for addiction needs to be more pervasive and
more effective.

The commission's report last month says that drug offenders are recycled
through the state's court and prison systems because of conflicts between
medical and criminal justice approaches to drug crimes. It also says that
changing sentencing guidelines for possession of small amounts of drugs
would open up 400 to 800 spaces in state prisons.

Relieving pressure on the prison system would not be a bad byproduct, but
the state should focus on treatment because it is the best, most socially
responsible way to deal with drug crime. Treatment, whether in confinement
or one probation, must be mandatory.

Some in law enforcement were not so sure that the state should be more
lenient in sentencing prison time. We are not either, but the state should
make sure that prison sentences are logical - not to prescribe the same
sentence for a small amount of marijuana as for cocaine or methamphetamine
or other more serious drugs, for example. And the state should be sure to
make sentences for drug crimes consistent with other convictions. A
Lawrence attorney, for example, complains that a second marijuana
conviction is a felony but that someone must batter his wife three times in
five years before he is considered a felon.

With addiction often comes relapse. Kansas will not be able to eliminate
all multiple offenders, but it should be certain that the judicial and
prison systems do not contribute to the recycling of drug criminals.
Treatment can be done during probation or in prison, and prison should be
for rehabilitation, not just punishment.

Finally, medical experts in addiction and drug treatment need to be more
involved in developing the state's treatment programs for drug offenders.

Effective treatment of drug addiction offers the best hope for controlling
criminal drug use.

editorial by John D. Montgomery