Pubdate: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ) Copyright: 1999 Pulitzer Publishing Co. Contact: http://www.azstarnet.com/ Author: Sidney Z. Searles TREAT ADDICTED CRIMINALS Thank God that White House drug policy director Gen. Barry McCaffrey recognizes the war on drugs has failed and we must pursue a more sensible policy. In an address he delivered recently, McCaffrey stated that 85 percent of the 1.8 million prisoners in America were there because of addiction problems. He emphasized there is a critical need for treatment. Scientific research indicates addiction and substance abuse may be permanently eliminated. Those who have studied this research are convinced addiction is a disease and prison is the wrong place for addicts. In fact, one of the great mental health institutions in America, the Menninger Clinic in Kansas, has devised programs that are departures from traditional treatment. In several hundred drug courts throughout our country in which treatment, rather than punishment, is the goal, former addicts have been permanently cured. In Kansas, programs in the criminal courts have achieved an 83 percent success rate. The drug court in Tucson, administered by Judge Leslie Miller, has also achieved a large degree of success because of treatment and education. If all addicted criminals were treated, billions could be saved in prison construction, confinement costs and related violent crime, including school violence. Above all, these adults will become productive and law-abiding citizens who may be enabled to work and pay taxes. With treatment, those who have lost hope in themselves may once again regain their spirit and self-esteem. We will then be able to get rid of drug dealers and the tremendous profits in the commerce of drugs. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake