IT’S A GRAY AREA:

In last week’s column, we discussed why our policy of drug prohibition is not working and why it will never work.

That probably was a discouraging column to read for many people. But today’s column will bring you hope, because it discusses drug programs that work worldwide.

The first thing to do when focusing upon programs that work is to make the same important distinctions, such as the difference between drug crime on the one hand, and drug money crime on the other. Similarly we must make distinctions between someone’s use of drugs, as opposed to his or her misuse, abuse or addiction to drugs. We must also focus upon the difference between the government attempting to hold adults accountable for their actions, instead of what they put in their bodies.

The first thing is full, honest and open education. You show me a problem area in our society, and I will show you how full, honest and open education is a material part of its resolution. We should focus honestly upon both the risks and the benefits of using various substances. Education of this kind is working quite well with regard to the biggest killer drug of all, tobacco, and it will work just as effectively with other drugs.

Another program is a needle-exchange program. This program allows a person to exchange a dirty hypodermic needle and syringe for a clean one at a designated location — no money changes hands, and no questions are asked. That’s it. Research studies show that programs as such do not influence drug usage, but they do reduce the incidence of the HIV virus that leads to AIDS as well as Hepatitis C and other blood-born diseases by about 50%.

Regardless of what one thinks about people who inject themselves with illicit drugs, they do not deserve to contract the AIDS virus. And if that humane reason is not enough, consider that it costs us taxpayers about $100,000 for each person in our country who gets AIDS.

Much hope can also be gained from a heroin maintenance program that has been in operation in Switzerland since the middle 1990s. This is a program run by licensed medical doctors that furnishes prescriptions of heroin to people who are addicted to it, and the prescriptions are filled at local pharmacies. To qualify for the program, people must be at least 18 years old, have been addicted to heroin for at least two years, present signs of poor health, had two or more failed attempts at conventional treatment, and must surrender their driver’s licenses.

By the way, none of these presently illegal drugs are expensive to grow, manufacture or supply. Marijuana is not called a “weed” for nothing; it will grow anywhere. And the National Park Service was growing the opium poppy used to make heroin for years at Monticello until the DEA found out about it and ordered them removed. If the poppies will grow in Virginia, they will grow virtually anywhere. The only reason any of these drugs are expensive is because they are illegal. So the cost of the heroin in this program is no more than $10 per day for even the heaviest-using drug addict.

The results of the heroin-maintenance program show a 60% drop in felonies by the patients and an 82% drop in patients selling heroin. No one has died from a heroin overdose, and new infections of AIDS and hepatitis have been reduced. In addition, heroin usage in the communities has also been materially reduced. Most new users are introduced to it by their social groups, and 50 percent of the users sell heroin to support their own habits. But with so many users/sellers in the medical program, non-users have fewer chances to be exposed.

This medicalization program also made heroin unattractive to young people. As a result of this success, Switzerland’s heroin program is being replicated in Germany, Holland, Belgium, England, Spain and Canada.

Another program that works is treatment. The RAND Corporation published study results in 1994 that said taxpayers get seven times more value for tax dollars with drug treatment than they do for incarceration.

This shows that it is much more effective to provide treatment for a nonviolent drug-addict, which costs about $3,500 per year, than to incarcerate that person at the cost to the taxpayers of about $25,000 per year.

For those people who are in prison, drug treatment has also been shown to bring truly positive results. For example, in Donovan State Prison in northern San Diego County, drug-addicted people who receive treatment as well as a program of aftercare support have a recidivism or re-offender rate of about 18% within the first year after being released from prison. But similar groups of drug addicts who do not receive the treatment program and an aftercare component have a recidivism rate of about 80% within the same period of time!

So think of all of the crimes not committed, victims not victimized, police not having to investigate and prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and juries not having to try criminal cases — as well as the prison space that is freed up — all as a result of the treatment program at Donovan.

JAMES P. GRAY is an Orange County Superior Court judge and author of the book, “Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It — A Judicial Indictment Of The War On Drugs.” He can be reached at [email protected] or at his blog site at www.judgejimgray.com.