TREATING DRUG OFFENDERS BETTER OPTION

I applaud the Deseret News' excellent series on drug addiction and its
treatment in portraying society's most stigmatized element as real people
with treatable problem behaviors.

The Deseret News/KSL TV poll revealed a contradictory attitude among
Utahns. Those individuals who agree that "addiction is a chronic brain
disease that must be medically treated" number 58 percent, and those who
agree that "addiction is a moral failing" total 56 percent.

The director of the State Division of Substance Abuse explained that people
see "the choice to first use [drugs] is a behavioral choice, and that once
certain people start . . . they lose their ability to control their use and
they abuse."

This may be why Utahns consider a "chronic brain disease" to be a "moral
failing," but it is more likely because we are told "public policy has
typically treated addiction . . . by prosecution and jail time." The public
has no other model to compare with the present one, which has been
prosecuting certain drug use since alcohol Prohibition.

So there is an unexamined and illogical assumption that if drug use is
criminally punished, then it must be a moral failing despite the
conflicting belief that drug abuse is a "chronic brain disease."

Gayle Ruzicka of the Eagle Forum expressed the unexamined mind-set that
surrounds this issue. The Deseret News quoted her, saying, "We shouldn't
expect the average citizen to pay for people who have gotten themselves in
these messes. It is not right, it's not the proper role of government."

She seems unaware the "average citizen" is already paying for the failed,
so-called solution to drug abuse, known as incarceration, which is clearly
a "role of government."

Ms. Ruzicka is evidently out of touch with the average citizen on this
issue. According to the March 25 Deseret News, the Calister Foundation
found: "Utahns not only believe overwhelmingly that drug addiction is a
disease, that it's a public health problem, not a law enforcement problem,
[but that it] should be given substantial amounts of public funds to deal
with it."

The attitude expressed by Ms. Ruzicka disregards the possibility of an
alternative to incarceration that is not only less expensive and more
effective but also more socially responsible.

A 1997 Rand Drug Policy report titled "Mandatory Minimums: Throwing Away
the Key or Taxpayer's Money?" found that treatment is eight times more
cost-effective than long sentences in removing cocaine from the market. So
the current approach to "treating" drug abusers is costing taxpayers eight
times more than it should. When a government program wastes 88 percent of
its funding, I let my elected representatives know that I'm not happy about it.

The Deseret News reported that in "six out of 10 cases where State Division
of Child and Family Services is called to protect the welfare of children
now involve drug abuse," and 90 percent of these cases are mothers who
require day care for their children. Does Ms. Ruzicka believe it is
socially responsible to deprive children of their mother for a poor choice
she may have made regarding drug use?

Many of us make choices that diminish our own or our family's quality of
life or adversely affect society. These include not finishing high school,
resulting in a lower standard of living; overspending and jeopardizing our
financial opportunities; eating high-fat, low-nutrition diets, increasing
our susceptibility to diseases like obesity and diabetes; working stressful
jobs, resulting in high blood pressure and heart attacks; or engaging in
unsafe or unwise sexual practices, resulting in disease or unplanned
pregnancies.

All of these choices are destructive, yet none of them result in a criminal
record or incarceration. To do so for those abusing drugs further
disadvantages them and their families. And since drug abuse is a problem in
prison as well, incarceration fails to change the drug abuser's behavior.

Without treatment and lifestyle reorientation, those incarcerated for drug
use continue their drug use when released. Incarceration fails to alleviate
the problems of the drug abuser's family and society as well.

However, stigmatizing this group of people as criminals does allow the
moralist to feel that he or she has taught the users of certain drugs a
lesson. What that lesson is, however, is lost to me, and I'm certain it is
lost to those incarcerated for their use of certain drugs. I'm curious why
our legislators listen only to the odd moralist instead of the majority of
Utahns on this issue.