Drugs in de USofA

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Bijgaand wat delen van tekst uit een recent artikel in http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2002/10/30/drug_measures/index.html

Wat korte cijfers uit de tekst:
- 70% van de Amerikanen wil een 'hulp'- en geen 'straf'-benadering van verslaafden
- in 10 jaar tijd is het aantal drugsgevangen van 40.000 naar 500.000 gegaan en dit kost USD 5 milliard (billion in USA en UK) per jaar.
- meer dan 10% van de kinderen heeft een verslaafde ouder en 7% raken zelf ook verslaafd (1 op de 14 raken dus verslaafd)
- 70% van de kindermishandeling heeft te maken met verslaving en dit deel kost USD 10 milliard
- 5 millioen Amerikanen behoeven behandeling voor drugsverslavings en 2 millioen krijgen het
- de staten (dus niet op Federaal nivo) gaven in 1998 USD 81 milliard uit aan drugsverslaving en de gevolgen, waarvan slechts 4% aan
preventie en behandeling

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In November 2000, California voters decided it was time for Tracy Carter, and drug users like her, to try something different. With 61
percent of the vote, they passed Proposition 36, a measure that sends most nonviolent drug offenders into treatment rather than to jail.
Two years later, similar initiatives are on the ballot in Ohio and the District of Columbia; several more states have implemented or are
working on legislative fixes to tough drug laws; and more than 70 percent of Americans are telling pollsters they'd like to see the
government ease up on addicts.

This new climate may be based in pragmatism as much as in compassion. The number of drug offenders in state and federal prisons
has increased more than tenfold over the past decade, from 40,000 to nearly 500,000. Incarcerating them costs five billion dollars a
year. With a faltering economy draining government coffers -- and the war on terrorism competing for dollars formerly reserved for the
war on drugs -- the price tag for being the world's largest jailer is starting to look a little steep.

More than 8 million of America's 75 million children have a parent or parents addicted to drugs or alcohol. Parental drug addiction fuels
the foster care system; it feeds the juvenile justice system. It affects welfare caseloads, school performance and child health. And
parental addiction is self-perpetuating: Up to 70 percent of the children of addicts become addicted to drugs themselves.

According to researchers at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), parental
substance abuse is implicated in seven of 10 cases of child abuse and neglect, and is responsible for $10 billion of the $14 billion spent
nationally each year on child welfare costs. Nationwide, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 5 million Americans
need drug treatment but only 2 million receive it.

Our response to these children has to date lacked imagination: We incarcerate addicted parents and place their children in foster care,
or leave them to fend for themselves. CASA researchers spent three years scrutinizing state budgets in an effort to figure out the dollar
cost of this approach. In 1998, they determined, the states spent $81.3 billion dealing with drug abuse and its consequences, but of
each dollar spent, only 4 cents went to prevention and treatment. This imbalance, they found, had a particularly powerful impact on the
young: The states spent $5.3 billion addressing cases of child abuse and neglect, 79 percent of which could be traced to parental drug
or alcohol abuse.

But as the nation tentatively embarks on a new way of doing things, early indications are promising. In California, the Department of
Corrections has reported a 20 percent drop in the number of drug offenders in its custody since Proposition 36 was implemented, and
a 10 percent drop in women inmates overall. As the measure is fully implemented, the state Legislative Analyst's Office estimates, it will
save between $100 and $150 million each year in prison costs.

When parents do get treatment, the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment has found, kids come home and taxpayers save
even more money. In a Florida pilot program, for example, 180 women treated in a single residential program regained custody of 580
children who had previously been in the care of the state.
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De VVD, CDA en LPF moeten hier maar eens op worden gewezen in de 2e kamer en regering, zodat ze nog een keer horen dat de
repressieve toer alleen maar goed is voor meer rechtzaken, vollere gevangenissen, meer menselijke 'afvallers' en een systeem wat
zichzelf in stand houdt (en kennelijk ook nog autonoom doet groeien).

Amerikaanse politici en overheidsdienaren moeten maar verplicht worden een paar procent van hun tijd aktief te zijn in de hulpverlening
in deze branch, zodat ze de gevolgen van hun beleid kunnen toetsen aan hun wetgevende capaciteiten.

Wellicht ook een idee voor Nederland?

Groet,

Cees

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