Author: Susan K. Patrick

WINNING SOME BATTLES IN WAR ON DRUGS

Tom Condon's April 4 column [Connecticut, "Flash: Drug War No Joke"] raises
some interesting if debatable points.

If using the metaphor of a war on drugs, there is a battlefield of supply
reduction and a battlefield of demand reduction. Although we may not have
been terribly successful on the supply-reduction battlefield, we are
certainly having success on the other.

Fifteen years ago, one of the country's biggest drug problems was cocaine.
That's been cut nearly 80 percent. According to "Monitoring the Future," an
ongoing study by the University of Michigan, high school seniors reporting
they've used illegal drugs has dropped by nearly 18 percent over the past
20 years. Those saying they've used marijuana also declined nearly 18
percent and the percentage saying they've used cocaine has been cut in half.

Connecticut's Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services notes that
decreases in adolescent drug use here are part of a national trend and, for
the most part, are steeper than those seen on average nationally. The
greatest decreases are among gateway drugs such as alcohol, marijuana and
inhalants.

We must invest our drug dollars more wisely. Calls for legalizing marijuana
and other drugs are based on flawed reasoning. The two legal drugs, alcohol
and tobacco, cost society more than $200 billion in 1995 dollars. They
account for more than half a million deaths a year and immeasurable misery.

We at The Governor's Prevention Partnership know that preventive measures
give the greatest bang for the buck. Although every dollar invested in
treatment may save taxpayers $7, a dollar invested in preventive measures,
such as mentoring and parenting programs or targeted media messages, can
save $15.

Connecticut spends less than 1 cent of every public dollar on substance
abuse prevention. A new state law will soon require state agencies to
factor prevention into the spending equation.

Susan K. Patrick

President

The Governor's Prevention Partnership

Hartford