Pubdate: Sun, 16 Aug 2015
Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
Copyright: 2015 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Contact: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/SendLetter/
Website: http://www.santafenewmexican.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/695
Author: Laurie Bauer
Note: Laurie Bauer is a University of Southern California School of 
Social Work graduate student. She has lived and worked in Santa Fe 
for the past 12 years and is persuing a career in social work and 
public health.

ALTERNATIVES OFFER DRUG OFFENDERS BETTER FUTURE

The City Different is in a unique position, at just the right time in 
history, to have a small but powerful impact on how low-level drug 
offenders are treated, and, ultimately, on whether or not they are 
offered a chance at recovery.

With increasing awareness of the social, economic and political 
effects of mass incarceration, it is more important than ever to 
begin thinking outside the box about the war on drugs.

Some $60 billion is being spent annually to keep people incarcerated, 
and destructive mandatory-minimum sentences continue to flood our 
jails and prisons with individuals who are nonviolent drug offenders.

The system of incarceration for drug offenses is doing more harm than 
good. Obtaining employment with a felony conviction is almost 
impossible, and securing student loans also is off the table. 
Families are broken up for years and decades at a time, and yet, 
people continue to use drugs.

It is time to see drug use as a public health issue, not a criminal 
justice one.

It seems that the tide is shifting.

President Barack Obama has commuted 89 sentences for low-level drug 
offenders during his tenure; Democratic presidential candidate Bernie 
Sanders is building a platform that calls for widespread and 
retroactive clemency to nonviolent drug offenders; bipartisan bills 
that improve drug-related sentencing and challenge mandatory-minimum 
laws have been introduced in the Senate; 23 states (plus Washington, 
D.C.) allow the use of medical marijuana.

One future step is to focus on prevention by diverting drug offenders 
to treatment services rather than to the criminal justice system. 
Santa Fe is the second city in the United States to have implemented 
a Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, and with that 
implementation, continues a long legacy of harm-reduction practices 
in New Mexico.

What is LEAD? LEAD is a national intervention that allows certain 
low-level drug offenders - those possessing or selling less than 3 
grams of opiates - an alternative to incarceration. LEAD has been 
implemented by the Santa Fe Police Department and since March 2014 
has diverted 38 people to treatment services with capacity to serve 100.

Why is this important to our community?

First, it's well-known our community members are using drugs, being 
incarcerated for drugs, and losing opportunities to engage in civic 
responsibilities because of their involvement with criminal justice 
rather than with treatment systems. Second, a large percentage of 
people being arrested for theft in our town are addicted to opiates.

Stealing funds their habit, and upon release the same behaviors 
occur, as jail does not adequately address underlying issues related 
to addiction.

Lastly, Santa Fe, as a result of the police department's response to 
this lose-lose situation, is positioned to demonstrate efficacy of 
alternative-to-incarceration programs on a national level through 
LEAD participation.

It's time for us to live up to our moniker and support our community 
by taking a stand against mass criminalizing of drug users.

We can do this by supporting the Santa Fe Police Department's Law 
Enforcement Assisted Diversion program; we can contact our lawmakers 
and ask them to support the SAFE Justice Act of 2015, the Smarter 
Sentencing Act of 2015 and the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2015; we 
can assist those who are addicted by offering referrals to 
harm-reduction and/or treatment services; we can become informed 
about HIV, hepatitis C and sexually transmitted infection prevention, 
testing and treatment options; and, most importantly, we can treat 
all members of our community with consideration, concern and 
compassion as we respond to a failed war on drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom