CHIEFS: DRUG BATTLE IS FAILING

For now, the war on drugs seems doomed to fail. The battle won't be
won with the strategies in effect today, according to three Oakland
County police chiefs who worked in narcotics units in the Detroit
Police Department and the Wayne County Sheriff's Department.

The three chiefs - William Dwyer of Farmington Hills, Ed Glomb of
Franklin and Ronald Cronin of West Bloomfield Township - worked one of
the toughest beats together in the 1970s and 1980s, fighting on the
front lines of the drug war on the streets of Detroit.

Though they no longer work in Detroit, the three remain friends. And
the communities they now serve as law enforcement leaders border one
another and are within a few miles of their former stomping grounds.

The chiefs agree that a change in emphasis is needed to turn the
tide.

"The problem today is worse than it was 25 years ago," said Glomb, who
worked Detroit-area narcotics for the Wayne County Sheriff's
Department. "We've got to start taking a different approach to it."

Cronin agrees: "We're battling the same battles. We have not won any
war when it comes to narcotics. Right now, all we do is contain the
people. We keep a lid on it.

"Are we ever going to overcome it? No."

Dwyer can rattle off the standard functions of police in this fight -
investigate, arrest, convict, seize, forfeit, imprison.

"All of these are done continuously, over and over again," Dwyer
said.

From 1975 to 1981, Dwyer led the Detroit police narcotics unit. During
that time, he said his squad of 180 officers conducted an average of
10 to 12 raids a day, seven days a week.

"He more or less changed the narcotics squad from being a
decentralized unit to a centralized unit and targeting higher echelon
traffickers," said Glomb about Dwyer.

Dwyer says a three-pronged attack is needed - strong law enforcement,
rehabilitation for users and addicts and education to prevent
experimentation, use and addiction.

Cronin said the addition of mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines
for drug users, which can land someone with more than 650 grams of
cocaine in prison for life, have done little to slow the problem.
Mandatory minimum sentencing laws apply not only to cocaine, but many
other drugs as well.

Along with many defense attorneys, Cronin has seen low-level people,
known as mules because they simply do the carrying for others, end up
in prison for life. He thinks mandatory minimums need to be
re-examined because they seldom affect the truly high-level drug dealer.

"It hasn't changed anything in 25 years," he said of those
laws.

It comes down to a simple economic law: as long as a demand exists,
there will be a supply. "The demand is as great now as in the '70s and
'80s, if not greater," Dwyer said. "As long as you have a demand,
you'll have a drug problem."

Busting up narcotics distribution organizations is important in
preventing the war from being lost, but it does not solve the overall
nationwide drug problem.

"Every time you take a major organization down and cripple it, people
will come in and take it over because it is so lucrative," Dwyer said.

Glomb is even more pessimistic.

"When we left, the problem was worse than when we started," Glomb
said. "We kind of laugh at this 'war on drugs.' We lost it a long time
ago, unfortunately.

"I don't think you're ever going to get completely rid of drugs. As
long as there's profit, you can't get rid of drugs."

Glomb's proposal is to put the convicted users and dealers to work.
Their sentences should include long stints of treatment followed by
working to fix the damage done, especially in the neighborhoods.

"A lot of neighborhoods are trashed because of drugs," Glomb said.
"Get them off drugs and then positively involved with rebuilding the
community. Have them become part of the solution instead of the
problem. I'd rather see them at some camp someplace, working."

After that, he would like to see job placement become an integral part
of the person's improvement.

He said a hurdle to helping nonviolent addicts is that after three or
four arrests, they're often sent to prison, where they mix with truly
hardened criminals.

"They come out worse than when they went in," Glomb
said.

To curb the demand, education and rehabilitation need to serve a
stronger role.

"The greatest value is in rehabilitation," Dwyer said. "There are not
enough long-term rehab centers for people who get addicted to drugs."

A major problem in law enforcement has been getting substantial
rehabilitation help to addicts who commit property crimes, Dwyer said.

"That's where we are failing - to get these people help," Dwyer said.
"Many addicts want to get help."

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said an effective treatment
plan requires the promise of punishment if treatment fails.

Dwyer, who is president of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of
Police, said law enforcement officials in general, including himself,
are not prepared to endorse the legalization of drugs.

Keeping up the fight against drugs is crucial to law enforcement
because of how deeply addiction affects society.

Dwyer said his department's top concern is reducing the most violent
crimes - murder, armed robbery, sex crimes and making drugs available
to children.

Anytime drugs and addiction can be reduced, other crimes will fall,
particularly home invasions and armed robberies. Dwyer said 80 percent
of all people imprisoned nationally have substance-abuse problems.

"Every day we see armed robberies committed by people who are
addicted. If we didn't have this drug problem, you wouldn't see the
overcrowding of jails and prisons," Dwyer said.