I never thought I would come to this conclusion, but after 30 years, the present anti-illegal drug program is obviously a failure. Some statistics from a recent issue of Business Week are as follows:
Intravenous drug use accounts for one-third of the more than 1 million people who are now HIV positive. Average long-term costs of caring for a person with AIDS - $60,000.More than 550,000 drug-exposed babies are born each year. Median hospital costs are $5,500 per day per child.
Nearly 50 percent of federal prison inmates and 70 percent of state inmates have a history of drug abuse. Most of these are incarcerated for drug-related crimes. Average yearly cost per inmate is $16,946.
Drug abuse accounts for a 29 percent increase in the number of children placed in foster care, about 360,000 in 1989. Annual cost of care - up to $36,000 each.
These statistics do not reveal the social and economic costs of wife/child abuse, divorce, school dropouts, poverty, prostitution, etc.
The time has come to establish clean, professional, legal storefront clinics, perhaps operated by county health departments, where addicts can receive controlled injections and treatment. Although not a panacea, I can see an immediate drop in crime, the cost of the drug war, criminal profits, AIDS due to nonsterile needles, etc. Drug abusers can be tracked and treated. I urge political leaders to look seriously at this option.
Allan Fechser
Kaysville