The war on drugs has been one of the biggest culture wars going on in this country since the 1980s. That's when President Reagan gave the go-ahead for millions of dollars to authorize much more strict law enforcement procedures and other programs to keep drugs out of the hands of the people of the United States. Since then, many people have analyzed the situation and came to conclusions that are near polar opposites.
Drugs are no doubt a problem in the United States. Thousands die each year because of them; relationships with family and friends are devastated and ruined by drug addiction; and society pays a huge price in terms of socioeconomic costs as well.
So, what's the answer? Has the war on drugs worked? The answer isn't black and white, but in terms of the best strategy to approach this issue-no.
Recently on my talk radio show, I had the opportunity to speak with JD Stier, a former drug dealer and marijuana user who spent two years in prison for possession. Since getting out of prison, JD has become a drug and alcohol counselor at a local rehab clinic, where he helps counsel young people on the dangers of drugs. He has also since gotten a degree from UW-Madison and plans to go to law school to become a criminal defense attorney. JD's story is truly an inspirational one, as he has turned his life around to try and protect others from the same thing that cost him two years of his life in one of the worst environments imaginable: prison.
There is one major point on which JD and I agree; the approach to the war on drugs is not an effective one. Rather than having this knee-jerk \lock-em-up"" reaction to drug users, we should be focusing on preventative strategies so these situations don't happen in the first place. Right now, the strategy is two-thirds enforcement, one-third prevention. That should be reversed to two-thirds prevention, one-third enforcement. Of course, if someone is a repeat offender after given chance after chance, then enforcement strategies do need to be put into place because oftentimes drug abusers become a danger to themselves and society as a whole.
The debate in Madison has historically been between County Executive Kathleen Falk and Dan County Sheriff Gary Hamblin. Falk wants to employ more prevention and rehabilitation strategies to the drug problem, rather than just throwing people in jail. Hamblin wants to build more prisons for drug offenders and continue with the current ""lock-em-up"" approach.
Study after study has shown that a black-and-white, reactionary law enforcement strategy is not the first attempt that should be made to solving this problem. We saw this with last year's drink special ban on the UW-Madison campus. After the study results were collected, it was found that crime actually increased 35 percent on the State Street and Johnson Street areas that employed the ban, and thus the ban was dropped. The results come down to this: Students are still going to drink, and if prices are too high at the bars, they will go elsewhere to a more ""dangerous"" house or frat party where they can drink much more for less. We learned this lesson with the failures of prohibition during the 1930s as well.
I personally have never done drugs, but from helping out many of my closest friends in this area, I do understand that throwing them in prison is not the answer. The answer is prevention, rehabilitation and education from a young age. We now know that the average age for the first encounter with drugs and alcohol is eight to 10 years old. That's an amazing statistic. Health insurance rarely covers much, if any, rehab costs, and society pays a huge price for that. Drug addiction is a disease and it should be treated as that, just like cancer, AIDS or any other health problem.
I hope one day America will wake up to the fact that we will never be able to come close to cutting down on the number of problems associated with drugs if we don't change the current approach. More prevention, rehab and education are needed so that more people like JD Stier can help today's youth now so that their lives aren't ruined in the future.
Casey Hoff is a senior majoring in business. He can be heard weekdays from 9-11 a.m. on Talk Radio 1670 AM.
