DRUG COURT IS A START - BUT NO MORE

"The Threat of Prison that Coerced Treatment Relies Upon Can Backfire When
It's Actually Put to Use."

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

Fear of criminal sanctions compels problem drug users to suffer in silence.
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 recently earned the dubious distinction of having the
highest incarceration rate in the world, with drug offenses accounting for
the majority of federal incarcerations. This is big government at its
worst. At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate annually, 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 due to
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 thrown in jail and given a permanent
criminal record. 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, Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.