Invest in Drug Programs

At a time when the county’s juvenile drug arrests are skyrocketing, only about half as many teens are being treated for drug addiction as there were five years ago.

That’s no way to wage a drug war.

The grim statistics: Despite only a 16% increase in the county’s juvenile population in the last decade, the number of minors arrested on drug charges jumped 280%--the largest rate increase in the state (from 486 in 1990 to 1,849 last year). But a recent study showed that the number of youths in publicly funded treatment programs dropped from 1,886 five years ago to the current caseload of 1,042.

To close the gap between arrests and treatment facilities, the county needs about three times the level of current services, according to estimates from state health officials.

There are some obvious reasons for the sharp increase in drug arrests. Zero tolerance policies in school districts have put more students into the juvenile justice system. And law enforcement officials cite an increase in drug use, and their more aggressive policing.

What’s missing is more aggressive treatment and prevention programs.

Judges straining under the caseload and frustrated by the shortage of resources are correctly calling for the expansion of treatment services rather than merely meting out punishment.

Police, too, feel that just making more arrests is not the best answer. They are turning more to intervention programs and creating them with the courts.

The Sheriff’s Department has a program in South County for first-time juvenile offenders who get the opportunity to keep their record clean if, along with their parents, they complete a course focusing on the dangers of drugs and why juveniles use them.

There is also a pilot drug court where juveniles are sentenced to an intense treatment program instead of detention as long as they stay with the treatment and obey the court’s strict curfews.

Intervention, along with treatment for those youngsters already using or hooked on drugs, is clearly the way to go.

The county currently budgets $28 million toward its substance abuse programs. Most of that money is from federal block grants and the state’s general fund. The county’s Health Care Agency expects to receive an additional $600,000 soon from the state, which will help beef up adolescent substance abuse treatment.

But the Board of Supervisors has allocated only $2.5 million from the county general fund to the drug programs.

Certainly, there are financial limitations in the balancing act of funding local programs, but the board historically has been one of the worst in the state in supporting local health and social services. The latest example is the battle between the board and the community over the spending of the tobacco settlement funds.

Greater funding for drug prevention programs is a cost effective budget approach. The money would be far better spent that way than on building, staffing and operating more and more courtrooms and detention facilities, to say nothing of the crime rates and tragic social costs involved in failing to divert young people from drug use.

Judges bemoan the fact that the greatest majority of cases before them--almost as many as nine out of 10, according to some jurists--involve alcohol or drugs. And the ages of youngsters who start experimenting with drugs are getting younger--often as young as 9 years old.

All of this suggests a need for more parental involvement and community commitment for more counseling and support groups.

There also is a need for more diversion programs, especially in the schools. The lower grades need special attention, before curiosity leads to experiment, and experiment leads to use, abuse, addiction and lost lives.