Rethink tactics of drug war?
FRAN AND RAY KOONTZ
On Father's Day this year, I thought it might be fun to pop our old home movies into the VCR. Everyone except our son John would be coming to our house to honor their dad, grandpa and great-grandpa. Many of the grandchildren and all of the great-grandchildren had not seen the movies, showing what their parents and grandma looked like, from infancy through high school.
I watched my sweet babies on the screen, first with amusement and then nostalgia. The scenes of John, especially, tugged at my heart. What a sweet, happy little boy he was - loving baseball and his neighborhood buddies, shooting pool as he got into high school, still enjoying going out to eat with Mom and Dad on Friday nights through high school graduation.
I remember taking him, just barely 18, to Iowa State, knowing he really wasn't ready to go away to school. He came home after the first year with mostly incompletes in all subjects except one: drinking. He was a changed young man. John drank with his construction buddies, drank with his school buddies, drank by himself.
My husband, Ray, and I watched in denial, horror and sadness before finally accepting that John has an illness; that he's an alcoholic. He married a great woman, had a beautiful son and a good job at Meredith printing. But he was jailed on DUI charges multiple times and eventually lost his job, his wife and son, and his self-respect. Then came methamphetamine addiction.
On July 3, he turned 50 in prison, serving his 10th year of a federal sentence on drug and weapons charges.
Today, when Ray and I visit him in prison, we again see a changed man, one who takes full responsibility for his actions. Yet he faces 12 more years in prison. That's not just a waste of John's life, but a waste of the nation's resources in keeping hundreds of thousands of nonviolent offenders like him behind bars.
First alcohol, then meth
In his 20s and 30s, John had 30-day treatment several times. We now know that effective treatment and behavior modification take far longer. He'd go into treatment, then relapse, each time worse than before. As an alcoholic, he preferred booze as his drug of choice, but would use any drug someone would supply. On and on it went, getting and losing jobs, spiraling deeper and deeper into alcohol and drugs, finally living in squalor with so-called friends in the basement of an inner-city house.
At age 40, he discovered meth and was immediately addicted. As research now tells us, there is an addictive gene that manifests in different ways, such as obsessive-compulsive behavior, alcoholism or other aberrant behavior.
John would drive his "friends" to a small town to party with girls, drink and use drugs. He was driving (without a valid license, of course), when police found drugs in his car. All his "friends" denied any knowledge of the drugs. John alone was tried and convicted, sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. There is no parole in the federal system, and prisoners must serve 85 percent of their sentences. John will be 62 when he's released.
Based on reviews of his case by three attorneys, we believe his civil rights were violated at trial. But a one-year deadline to press for a new trial based on a claim of rights violations passed without our knowledge.
2.2 million behind bars
John has said all along that he needed to be sent somewhere for longer than 30-day treatment, probably for several years, to learn about his illness and how to overcome it. But neither he nor we believe prison is the answer for nonviolent offenders, who hurt only themselves and those who love them. There's no evidence it works, and it takes people away from the support system of those who love them.
And consider the cost - an estimated $23,000 a year to house an inmate in federal prison, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Keeping John in prison for one year would come close to covering the tuition and fees for a student at any of Iowa's three public universities for their four-year undergraduate career. There are 2.2 million Americans in prison today. The U.S. incarceration rate in 2004 was the highest in the world, at 724 per 100,000 population, according to a report by The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group. Second was Russia, at 564. For more than 30 years, the number of inmates in U.S. prisons and jails has steadily risen, the report said.
Yet drug use remains rampant, while dollars for effective treatment are spent in separating people from their families, caged away like animals, without treatment, keeping them from becoming productive citizens. If you can find no sympathy for these addicts, at least be outraged at how your tax dollars are being spent.
Law changes are needed to bring back parole, double time for good behavior and release nonviolent offenders so they can start rebuilding useful lives. But politicians continue to campaign on punitive, tough-on-drugs platforms.
Contact your congressmen to demand that there be a complete change in our prison laws. Demand they represent the people's voice, rather than being concerned solely with getting re-elected. Let's put bad people away, but spend our tax dollars better. Murderers spend less time in prison than our son and others like him. Is this who we want among us? Murderers or drinkers?
Wasting lives, dollars
Our son readily laments that he was not a good father, son, brother or husband. Those regrets will be with him every minute of every day for the rest of his life. He longs to be where he can make at least some amends for what he's done. He's truly rehabilitated and is no longer a threat to himself or society.
He has received no education or addiction treatment in prison. What a waste of all resources, human most of all, but surely of dollars as well, to keep him imprisoned 12 more years. Is this overkill or just plain mean-spiritedness?
FRAN and RAY KOONTZ live in Des Moines. Fran Koontz is a planning and zoning commissioner and president of the Accent neighborhood association.
Rethink tactics of drug war?
Target big cartels; step up treatment
BILL PIPER
When Iowa's two U.S. senators - Republican Charles Grassley and Democrat Tom Harkin - this spring called on President Bush to fire his drug czar, John Walters, they spoke for many people frustrated with the lack of success in the war on drugs. But Walters' performance is mixed, and firing bureaucrats won't make our failed drug policies work any better. Systematic change is needed.
Despite spending hundreds of billions of dollars and arresting millions of Americans, illegal drugs remain cheap, potent and widely available in every community. Meanwhile, the harms associated with drug abuse - addiction, overdose, the spread of AIDS/HIV and hepatitis - continue to mount. Add to this record of failure the collateral damage of the war on drugs - broken families, racial disparities, wasted tax dollars and the erosion of civil liberties - and it's easy to see why so many Americans want major change.
The war on drugs has many defects, including lack of prioritization. Federal agencies are over-extended and waste too many resources duplicating state efforts. Policymakers need to shrink the drug war down to something that is manageable.
- First, reprioritize federal law-enforcement resources toward drug cartels.
Most federal drug prisoners are low-level offenders. A 2002 report to Congress, for instance, found that only 7 percent of federal cocaine prosecutions are against high-level traffickers. Federal drug enforcement should focus on large cases that cross international and state boundaries, with a priority toward violent traffickers and major crime syndicates.
All other cases should be left to the states. Federal laws not consistent with prioritization and federalism, such as laws targeting possession for personal use, should be eliminated and the threshold amount of drugs it takes to trigger federal involvement should be increased. Congress should set clear statutory goals for the disruption of major crime syndicates, and federal agencies should be required to report on their progress toward these goals, including resources wasted on low-level drug offenses.
- Second, stop wasting resources on marijuana.
Of America's 1.7 million drug arrests every year, almost half are for marijuana, and nearly 90 percent of those are for possession for personal use. Resources spent arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana possession are resources not spent dealing with drug cartels and violent crime. Congress should reform federal law to allow states to tax, regulate and control marijuana through a legal, regulated market like alcohol.
That would eliminate the violence associated with underground markets; allow law enforcement to focus more resources on violent crime and terrorism; generate tax revenue to pay for substance-abuse treatment and education; and allow policymakers to regulate marijuana's potency, establish age controls and regulate marijuana's use and availability.
- Third, eliminate law enforcement block grants to the states and shift the money to uniquely federal functions
States should pay their own way, and the federal government should concentrate on things only it can do, such as border control and homeland security. The Office of Management and Budget has found that these grants have done nothing to reduce crime. But they have perpetuated racial disparities, police corruption and civil-rights abuses across the country.
- Fourth, establish a comprehensive treatment system that ensures that every American who needs substance-abuse treatment can get it.
Study after study has shown that increased funding for treatment is the best way to undermine drug markets and reduce drug abuse. Treatment should include mental-health services, as well as services designed to prevent sexual abuse, domestic abuse and child abuse, to deal with the underlying roots of addictive behavior.
Burdensome federal regulations that limit access to treatment, such as restrictions that prevent doctors from prescribing methadone, should be eliminated. Policymakers should also ensure that programs are meeting the needs of populations that have faced unique hurdles to accessing treatment, such as women, minorities, youth and rural populations.
A good national drug policy should reduce the negative consequences of both drug use and drug laws. It should reduce both drug addiction and racial disparities. Keep our streets safe and families together. Reduce drug overdoses and wasteful government spending. Protect our kids and the Bill of Rights.
The war on drugs has failed on all counts. The federal government should concentrate on what only it can do - protecting our borders, taking down major crime syndicates and providing treatment to all who need it - and leave everything else to the states, faith-based groups and families.
BILL PIPER is director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance,