A LOCAL VIEW: REFORM DRUG LAWS TO TRIM STATE BUDGET

With Washington state revenues in free fall, with city and county budgets
facing large deficits, our leaders are searching for direction about where
to cut and what to save.

This is an opportune time to step up to the hard reality that incarceration
of nonviolent drug offenders is a failure both in people and financial terms.

The public knows it; other countries have shown it; it is time to close
this rat hole that costs much and benefits little.

State laws attack drug abuse as a moral violation demanding criminal
punishment. Yet the persistent reality is that criminalization does not
work either in keeping illegal drugs off the streets (supply) or dissuading
people from using and abusing them (demand).

Popular perception about drug policy has been notably shifting, much as
happened a century ago with alcohol prohibition. The public then came to
understand that attacking production, distribution and use of alcohol with
police intervention and criminal penalties stopped neither the supply nor
the demand. Instead the attack fomented a host of unintended consequences.

With the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, the abuse of alcohol did not go
away, but dealing with it as a moral violation was suspended. Production,
distribution and use of alcohol are now regulated. We do not jail adults
for simple sale or use. Those who abuse alcohol can access such services as
Alcoholics Anonymous and detoxification.

As the earlier public came to demand the ending of Prohibition, so today's
public is coming to reject simplistic law-and-order approaches to drug
abuse. Noteworthy examples of this change include successful votes to
legalize medical marijuana, prohibit seizing assets of accused drug dealers
before conviction and California's recent Referendum 36 mandating treatment
over incarceration for drug users.

Yet those in charge of Washington state's drug policy seem slow to get the
message. Public funding for drug treatment is severely limited, while tax
dollars to build expensive new prisons and hire still more jailers advance
without question. Washington's drug policy also is out of touch with
practices in other developed nations where pragmatic and health-based
approaches are moving ahead and coming to dominate government drug policies
and spending.

In such places, possession and use of marijuana and other such substances
are being decriminalized, with distribution controlled through regulated
markets. Addiction to opiates and amphetamines is viewed as a medical
condition requiring a treatment response. These are smarter,
better-targeted approaches. There is scarce evidence that public safety has
been compromised by them. The serious money saved by locking away fewer
people is available for better purposes.

Why Stick With Failure?

Why does Washington state persist with a failed drug policy? To an extent,
the answer has to do with the big money and good jobs attached to
maintaining the policy. A lot of self-serving interests are at risk.

Grays Harbor County, for example, actively lobbied to obtain a new
Washington state prison, an economic development strategy to attract state
dollars and jobs. Living-wage jobs are a valued commodity, and correction
officer jobs, tending and managing 24-7 the many incarcerated nonviolent
drug offenders, come with good salaries and generous health and retirement
benefits.

The answer also involves determination to be tough on crime. Shorter
sentences for nonviolent drug crimes has gained broad support from judges,
county prosecutors and law enforcement officials statewide, including the
state's prison chief. Their proposal would have the savings used to
increase drug treatment.

But state legislators remember tough-on-crime campaign themes and worry
what their constituents will think if they go along with shorter sentences.

The demands of the fiscal crisis in Olympia offer an opportunity for real
leadership in achieving a smarter, more effective drug policy. The public
has already shown that it is out ahead of its elected leaders in sorting
out nonviolent drug matters.

Legislators need to get the message that criminal justice and drug policy
are prime areas they can look in this budget debate to gain better program
results and substantial budget savings.