Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 Source: ABC News Nightline Contact: http://www.abcnews.go.com/onair/email.html Website: http://www.abcnews.go.com/ Forum: http://boards.go.com/cgi/abcnews/request.dll?LIST&roomstossel Note: Prepared by Burrelle's Information Services, which takes sole responsibility for accuracy of transcription FIGHTING THE DRUG WAR ANNOUNCER: June 29th, 2000. 1ST MAN: This is a lot better than crack. ROBB MEYER: This is the only life-threatening illness that I know that people say, 'Can you call me back in a couple of weeks and I'll try to get you in.' TED KOPPEL, ABCNEWS: Drug addiction. It's classified as a disease. GOVERNOR TOM VILSACK: It is an illness. It's a sickness that has to be treated. 1ST POLICE OFFICER: How would you like to have a face full of mace? TED KOPPEL: So, why do we treat it like a crime? 2ND POLICE OFFICER: Put your hands behind your back and do as you're told. DR STEVE GLEASON (ph) Substance abusers are sometimes icky people. They really do things that irritate everybody else. They do crime. KIP KAUTSKY (ph): Locking up people who have drug problems, it is not a thoughtful way to work. And it is clearly not working. 2ND MAN: Unless we change people's attitudes, unless we get them off of drugs, we're never going to solve the problem. TED KOPPEL: Tonight, the war on drugs. Are we fighting The Wrong Battle? ANNOUNCER From ABCNEWS: this is Nightline. Reporting from Washington, Ted Koppel. TED KOPPEL: As a general principle, politicians do not get elected in this country by appearing to be soft on drugs, which, in turn, means anyone who uses them, transports them, or sells them. And, indeed, our prisons are full and new prisons are being built just to accommodate all the men and women who have been sentenced to hard time for drug-related crimes. As a general principle, politicians do not get elected in this country by voting for large expenditures of foreign aid. Israel and Egypt seem to be two notable exceptions, but there is a third. Just last week, the Senate approved a piece of foreign aid legislation of almost a billion dollars to provide military training and assistance to the army and police of Colombia in their ongoing battle against the production of and distribution of cocaine and other hard drugs. You would think, in fact, that all you need to do in order to get money out of the US or your local state government is attach the word "drugs" to a bill or a program and you would get all the money you need. Indeed, that appears to be true, with one notable exception. Add the word "treatment," as in "drug treatment program," and all you get is apathy, which is more than strange, because in terms of dollar for dollar value, drug treatment programs are demonstrably cheaper and more effective than any kind of military aid or law enforcement. Let's begin with this report from Deborah Amos. 1ST WOMAN: Hello. ROBB MEYER: Hi, thank you. DEBORAH AMOS, ABCNEWS: (VO) It's 6:30 in the morning. ROBB MEYER: How are you today? 1ST WOMAN: Tired. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Robb Meyer is here to make a public pitch. 3RD MAN: It's R-O-B-B, right? M-E-Y-E-R? DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) He desperately needs donations to keep his new treatment center going. ROBB MEYER A person has a 75 percent greater opportunity for recovery when family members are involved. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Meyer saw a need. He thought he had an answer to Iowa's epidemic of addiction and the long waiting list for treatment. ROBB MEYER: Before we opened this center, there was 16 beds in the state of Iowa. There were 16 beds in the state of Iowa that treated women and their dependent children. That's all. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Meyer will strike out with this early morning audience... ROBB MEYER: Thank you. DEBORAH AMOS: ...just as he's struck out with most foundations, charities, and state and local officials. So he took on more than $200,000 of debt to open his center. ROBB MEYER: We can't afford to wait. If we waited till we could get the money to start the Rainbow Recovery Center, then the Rainbow Recovery Center would probably just be a dream that would go on and on and on. 2ND WOMAN: Good morning, Robb. ROBB MEYER: Good morning. 3RD WOMAN: Morning. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Robb Meyer thought he'd done everything right. NICKI: (ph) My name's Nicki. I'm an addict. GROUP OF ADDICTS: (In unison) Hi, Nicki. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) All the science was there, but to be successful, treatment must be long-term. ROBB MEYER: Addictive personality, what's that about? Take it on, move on with it. 4TH WOMAN: Low self-esteem. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) That women do better in women-only treatment programs, that women have more success with treatment when their children live with them. ROBB MEYER: He'll be a therapist when he gets to be big. OK.... DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) There was nothing like that in Des Moines, where treatment means long waits for short stays. 5TH WOMAN: Another crisis was when I lost my daughter because of my drug use. ROBB MEYER: This is the only life-threatening illness that I know that people say, `Can you call me back in a couple of weeks and I'll try to get you in.' DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) He even thought he had the governor, Tom Vilsack, on his side, who made a very public visit to a treatment center last February. TOM VILSACK: We have been significantly underfunding these programs for quite some time and we have paid a price as a society. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Vilsack often cited a state study that showed $1 invested in treatment is a $4 savings in court costs, prison costs, even health costs. Still, Robb Meyer couldn't get a cent from the government. At the Rainbow Recovery Center, women can stay up to a year. Their children live here, too. 6TH WOMAN: Come brush your teeth. 1ST CHILD: Unh-huh. Unh-huh. 6TH WOMAN: Yes. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) This building, once a sorority house for a local college, is now a full house with 14 women and 12 children. ROBB MEYER: Kids want structure in their life. The kids like structure in their life. DEBORAH AMOS: And that wasn't true when mom was using? ROBB MEYER: No. See, the kids--the kids were there to fend for themselves. You see, because the kids are now learning that you got to get up in the morning and you eat breakfast and you get ready and you go to school. AUDREY: (ph) How have you guys been, huh? DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Audrey has been anxiously waiting for this moment, a reunion with her twins. AUDREY: I missed you guys. DEBORAH AMOS (VO) The twins have been in foster care for three months. But even though she's finally back together with her children, Audrey and all of the mothers here know that they are still in danger of losing custody of their children. 4TH WOMAN: Don't forget your hat that Robb gave you. DEBORAH AMOS: For many women, tough new federal and state laws means hard choices concerning their children come quickly. In Iowa, the law says that a child must be placed in a stable home within a year. It's the best thing for a child, of course, but for the mother, it means the clock is ticking. She has to turn her life around within that time or she risks losing her parental rights, losing her children, forever. (VO) Juvenile court Judge Constance Cohen says she also feels caught by this system. She is critical of the long waiting lists for treatment, but she has to follow the law. JUDGE CONSTANCE COHEN, JUVENILE COURT JUDGE: I will take a little jar of whiteout and I ask them if they know what it is, and I keep it right up on the bench, and they usually know what that is. And I say, 'Do you know what they do with this stuff if I terminate your parental rights? Your names are whiteouted from the birth certificates and the names of the new parents are inserted.' DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Chris Rawlings (ph) is in court today because she's close to the deadline and the county attorney wants to terminate her parental rights. CHRIS RAWLINGS: I understand that they want a permanent place for my son, but the only permanent place I see him to be and be happy is with me. And they shouldn't have to put a time frame on that. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) For now, her 19-month-old son Matthew is in foster care. CHRIS RAWLINGS: Kisses. Yes. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Chris has weekly supervised visits. She now has a job, four months of sobriety, and is in treatment here. But still, it may be too late. ROBB MEYER: I think there needs to be a clock, but I don't know that it's not ticking too fast. I don't know that they put some unrealistic expectations on women in order to access all the services they need in order to do that because we don't give them enough time to prove themselves. CONSTANCE COHEN: There is a collision between the timelines we know are realistic for recovery, taking into consideration the reality of relapse and the timelines imposed by law for reunification or termination. Is it unfair? Perhaps to the parents. But you have to remember that my job is to ensure that the best interests of the children are met. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) But the reality is, relapse is a symptom of this disease. ROBB MEYER: Tell me who you are. I am--I am--I am. 4TH WOMAN: Oh, not this again. ROBB MEYER: Yep, again. Who am I? Who are you? 4TH WOMAN: I am a good person. I am a good mother. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Studies show that women average four relapses, even in successful treatment. But just one can raise doubts in a judge's mind. ROBB MEYER: Well, then, she must not be serious. No, she's very serious. This woman is very sick. You don't change somebody's behavior or you don't change somebody's irrational thought process into a rational thought process in 14 days. You don't do it in 60 days. You don't do it in 90 days. It takes a long time. It takes patience. It takes structure. You have two steps forward and one step back. Well, and you know that I'm Robb and also a recovering drug addict. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Robb Meyer knows that treatment works. He was an addict for 22 years, and has taken every one of those steps and then some. He's been clean and sober now for eight years. ROBB MEYER: I went to treatment 12 times. And does that mean treatment doesn't work? No, it means treatment works, but it means that--that we have to take little bits of our treatment and put that together. I learned something at every treatment center that I went to. I truly did. We have shown that--that treatment interventions help people return to a healthy, productive lifestyle. ANNOUNCER: This is ABCNEWS: Nightline, brought to you by... (Commercial break) DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) One of the best substance abuse treatment programs in Iowa is right here, a $175 million program pays for more than 700 slots. Treatment is for six months. The only problem is you have to go to prison to get in. 7TH WOMAN: What are some things that you personally are setting as a goal as far as your attitude? DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) But more than 80 percent of the prisoners here say they have substance abuse problems, so many that even in prison there is a waiting list to get treatment. Kip Kautsky is Iowa's commissioner of corrections. KIP KAUTSKY: Locking up people who have drug problems, who have substance abuse problems, it is not a thoughtful way to organize, and it's clearly not working. Well, how do we know it's not working? Look at how many people who are coming back who have drug problems. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) For those who do come back, 60 percent are nonviolent offenders, bad check writers, burglary cases, crimes associated with addiction, so many cases that Iowans voted to build three new prisons. KIP KAUTSKY: Essentially, we--we're looking at the fundamental issue of how many people can we afford to send to prison? DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Dr. Steve Gleason, director of Iowa's Public Health Department, asks how many people can Iowa afford not to treat? STEVE GLEASON: Without bringing the treatment dollars up, we are never going to stop the flow of drugs to this country. It's--it's the demand. It's free market. We--we in America should understand a free market and an open market. If there's a demand, somebody's going to supply it. 3RD POLICE OFFICER: Get down. Police search warrant! DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) And somebody always does. In Iowa, police sharply curbed the flow of methamphetamine coming from Mexico, but local labs stepped up production to fill the demand. Police detected 320 labs in 1998. Two years later, that number jumped to 800, and the price of meth kept dropping. (OC) But still the national approach to fighting drug addiction is mainly focused on fighting drug supply. Less than one-third of the federal budget for the problem goes to reducing demand. And many say, the balance is way out of line. Consider this statistic, a study by the Rand Corporation shows that money spent on drug treatment is seven times more effective than law enforcement, 23 times more effective than fighting drugs at the source. (VO) Officials in Iowa have been making the argument, but still, it's hard to sell. STEVE GLEASON: Substance abusers, I like to call them, are sometimes icky people. They really do things that irritate everybody else. In addition, there is this perception, because they don't like drug addicts, that the individual did it themselves, so they can find a way out. But while that individual is finding their way out, they're continuing to affect the criminal system, their families, their children. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) This year, Iowa's Governor Tom Vilsack approved an additional $5 million for prevention and treatment programs, but it's only enough to boost existing programs, not to start new ones. TOM VILSACK: It's always about choices. And the thing politicians don't do is they never explain to people, it's about choices. What's more important? Where do you want us to invest your resources? ROBB MEYER: We need to figure out how we are going to come up with $219,515, and I would open that up to suggestions. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Knowing there will be no help from state and local officials, the board meeting at the Rainbow Recovery Center focuses on where to get funds for the 14 women and 12 children who live here. KIP KAUTSKY: The concern then is that--that we let this public policy that is driven by a lack of funds, essentially create demand for a new prison. And that to me is--is missing the point. And it is truly dealing with something with--with a sledgehammer that--that you frankly don't need. You need thoughtful treatment in the community. 5TH WOMAN: I just hope that when you leave here that I can be a positive role model for everybody here, too, like you were. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) For Dana Lee Funk, it's graduation day. 4TH WOMAN: OK, Dana. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) She now has a job. She's completed three months of intense treatment. She'll be back at least once a week for the next year. 8TH WOMAN: I'm very proud of her. I love her very much. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) And so it goes, on and on. Dana's mother and grandmother join the hug line. DANA LEE FUNK: (ph) I love you. 9TH WOMAN: I'm very proud of you, Honey. You take care, and we know you'll come out OK. ROBB MEYER: We wanted to see women get healthy and families stay together. And this has exceeded even my wildest dreams. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) It is 11-year-old Heather's dream, too. (OC) Are you happy about where your mom is now? HEATHER: (ph) Yeah. DEBORAH AMOS: Is she different? HEATHER: Yeah. DEBORAH AMOS: Is she better? HEATHER:Yeah. I think so. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) Dana is moving back into her own apartment with one-year-old Kenny (ph). Her daughters will stay with grandma for a while longer. It is a good day for Robb, not just because it's the first graduation, but it opens up another bed. Worries about money will have to wait. ROBB MEYER: Walk in that house tonight at 8:30, when the kids go to bed, and mom's carrying those--those kids to bed. 10TH WOMAN: Ready for bed? 2ND CHILD: Not yet. ROBB MEYER: That's the way families live. 11TH WOMAN: There you go. ROBB MEYER: Not only are we breaking that cycle of--of mom and the kids being separated, but, see, now we've got a chance to break the cycle, that addictive cycle, with the kids. And then everybody gets well. DEBORAH AMOS: (VO) For Nightline, this is Deborah Amos in Des Moines, Iowa. TED KOPPEL: When we come back, I'll be joined by a writer who has studied the political battle over drug treatment for years. (Commercial break) TED KOPPEL: Joining us now from New York, Michael Massing, who has reported on the politics of drugs in the United States and Central America for 10 years. I read your book, Mr. Massing, and remember thinking, what a sly dog this guy is. So here he is pushing that bleeding heart liberal notion of drug treatment and whom does he invoke but Richard Nixon. Why did you? MICHAEL MASSING, AUTHOR "THE FIX": Well, it was a great surprise to me when I started my research. I really didn't expect to find anything of note in the history. We'd been waging this war on drugs for so long. But the more I looked into it, the more people kept telling me, you should look at the Nixon era. Things were done very differently then. And sure enough, the more I looked into it, the more I found that the Nixon presidency took a very pragmatic approach to the issue. Basically, they wanted to bring the crime rate down. They researched it. They determined that much of the crime that they were concerned about was being caused by heroin addicts. They wanted to have a quick effect because they were aiming for the '72 election. They wanted to bring crime down by then. And, basically, they determined that if they could get addicts into treatment through methadone and residential treatment and the like, that they could have a definite effect on the crime rate. TED KOPPEL: And did it work? MICHAEL MASSING: And it actually... TED KOPPEL: It worked? MICHAEL MASSING: ...it actually worked. Crime had gone down for the first time in years. Medical emergencies, hepatitis rates, one indicator after another, declined largely due to this ruth--investment in drug treatment. TED KOPPEL: And, as I recall from your book, it was also by far the most cost effective. In other words, it's a hell of a lot cheaper than any other approach that's been taken, right? MICHAEL MASSING: If you look at studies, for instance, by the Rand Corporation and elsewhere, the dollars that go into treatment are many times more effective than domestic law enforcement, than border interdiction, and especially much more effective than investing in hardware sent to places like Columbia, which we're about to do in a major fashion. TED KOPPEL: So explain to me then, it's cheaper, it's more effective, and clearly, I think, the American public does want drug addiction brought down and drug use brought down. So, if it's cheaper and better, why aren't more people in favor of it? MICHAEL MASSING: Well, Ted, I think you've put your finger on it at the beginning of the show that basically we still are in a very tough on crime type of climate. It's much easier for a politician to get up there and thunder about putting people away. Treatment is a--is a concept that seems to many people to be coddling criminals. I also think people just aren't aware yet of--of the studies and the research out there showing how cost effective it is. TED KOPPEL: But it just strikes me that with--with Richard Nixon out there, even posthumously, being able to run interference for any politician who wants to run that particular course, it would be a pretty safe way of doing it to say, `Look, this is not a--this is not a liberal proposal. Here's--here's one of our more conservative president, who was certainly tough on crime, and whose own investigation showed him and whose practice showed him that it works.' MICHAEL MASSING: I think that the Republican Party today is in a very different place than it was back then. And I just don't have much faith that our candidate at this point is going to do something like this. TED KOPPEL: So, I mean, where do we go? Where does America go from here? If all the emphasis is on spending more money on building prisons, drug interdiction, sending money overseas to countries like Columbia for more of the same, where's the hope? MICHAEL MASSING: I see two developments taking place that give me some hope. One is the very development of money going to Columbia. I think that it is focussed tremendous attention on this policy. There's been lively debates in Congress. I think it's going to backfire. I think people are going to look at a billion plus dollars going to Columbia for helicopters when we've got addicts in Iowa and New York and California and every other state who can't get the help they want. I think people are going to begin asking questions about that. I also feel that--that the continued expansion of our prison systems is creating questions, as well. In New York state, Chief Judge Judith Kay (ph) has just come out with a report calling for a massive diversion of people, drug offenders in the criminal justice system to go into treatment. I think more and more people in the criminal justice system are realizing that it's a better bargain to treat these people. And once that begins to sink in people are going to begin saying, `Well, if it's good for these people in--in--who have been arrested, how about these people who haven't been arrested? Shouldn't we also be giving them a chance to get well?' So, I do... TED KOPPEL: Mr. Massing... MICHAEL MASSING: ...see a little bit of hope there. TED KOPPEL: We're out of time, but I think you very much. Michael Massing, good to have you with us. I'll be back in a moment. (Commercial break) TED KOPPEL: And that's our report for tonight. I'm Ted Koppel in Washington. For all of us here at ABCNEWS, good night. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D