DRUG TREATMENT IS BETTER THAN ARREST

The Ulster County drug court is definitely a step in the right direction,
but an arrest should not be a necessary prerequisite for drug treatment.

Would alcoholics seek help for their illness if doing so were tantamount to
confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would putting every incorrigible
alcoholic behind bars and saddling them with criminal records prove
cost-effective?

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with
drug offenses accounting for the majority of federal incarcerations. At an
average annual cost of $25,071 per inmate, maintaining the world's largest
prison system can hardly be considered fiscally conservative.

The threat of prison that coerced treatment relies upon can backfire when
it's actually put to use. Prisons transmit violent habits rather than
reduce them. Minor drug offenders are eventually released, with dismal job
prospects because of criminal records. Turning recreational drug users into
unemployable ex-cons is a senseless waste of tax dollars.

Alcohol and tobacco are by far the deadliest recreational drugs, yet the
government does not go out of its way to destroy the lives of drinkers and
smokers. Imagine if every alcoholic were imprisoned. How many lives would
be destroyed? How many families torn apart? How many tax dollars would be
wasted, turning potentially productive members of society into hardened
criminals?

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer, Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.