Pubdate: Sat, 12 May 2001
Source: Rutland Herald (VT)
Copyright: 2001 Rutland Herald
Contact:  http://rutlandherald.nybor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/892

TIME FOR ACTION

Some senators are worried about putting the cart before the horse in 
establishing a drug court in Rutland.

The cart is the court, and the horse is the needed treatment programs that 
would make a drug court work. The answer is not to stop the cart, but to 
prod the horse forward so that drug offenders get the help they need.

Earlier this week the House passed a bill calling for a special "drug 
docket," a pilot program beginning in Rutland next April. The idea is to 
give drug offenders the option of drug treatment instead of jail. The 
problem is that the necessary treatment programs are not in place.

The issue that has provoked the most debate has been whether the new 
treatment programs will include a methadone clinic at Rutland Regional 
Medical Center. Many medical authorities say methadone is the best 
treatment for heroin addicts, but others say there are better methods.

The drug court proposal should not become derailed because of the methadone 
question. Senators who are concerned about the absence of treatment 
programs available in Rutland should look at methadone less as a panacea 
and more as one treatment option among many that should be used as part of 
a comprehensive approach to drug treatment. They could reassure Rutland 
residents worried about the use of methadone by taking the time to find the 
money and develop the programs necessary to make the drug court and its 
treatment alternatives work.

It would do no one any good to rush a drug court into place before its 
essential components have been developed. That means that between now and 
next winter senators, working with the Dean administration, ought to get 
realistic figures on the cost of providing treatment for addicts caught in 
the legal system.

An unusually broad consensus has developed among liberals, conservatives, 
social services and law enforcement that the scourge of drugs cannot be 
combated successfully by means of law enforcement alone. This is a rare 
opportunity. The uncertainty surrounding available treatment options should 
not be used as a cause for delay but as a call to action.
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MAP posted-by: Beth