OUR OPINION: A reminder of our drug-policy futility

Authorities can be excused if the effort to deal with the drug crisis feels a little like a game of whack-a-mole.

Just when attention has sharply focused on opioids and prescription pain-killers, up pops an old nemesis.

As the Daily Reporter’s Kristy Deer reported in a story last weekend, methamphetamine is starting to re-assert itself as a drug of choice for those seeking ways to get high. Arrests for possession and dealing are up. So is worry about its impact.

Gary O’Neal, an officer for Hancock County Drug Court, said officials have noticed users are resorting to meth in an effort to wean themselves off drugs like heroin.

“That’s crazy,” he told Deer, “but that’s what they’re doing because it’s cheap. But, if you’re using meth to get you off of heroin, you got a major, major problem.”

That problem is being fueled in part by a plentiful supply and cheap prices. One Indiana dealer who was caught transporting 7 pounds of meth from Arizona to Terre Haute told authorities he paid $1,700 for the haul, according to a recent account in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star. Fifteen years ago, that much meth would have cost 10 times that, officials were quoted as saying.

Production, which once was centered on neighborhood cooking laps using cold-medicine ingredients, has shifted to Mexican drug cartels thanks to laws that cracked down on the sale of such “precursor” products. Shilo Raulston, a narcotics detective for the Indiana State Police, told the Tribune-Star that, despite all the interceptions of meth shipments along Interstate 70 and elsewhere, no dent has been made in the market. The price of meth, he pointed out, is still cheap.

We ruefully note the uptick in the meth market as a reminder that our old method of dealing with drugs — locking up users and hoping for the best when they’re released — is not working. That meth manufacturing has simply been outsourced as a billion-dollar industry is another grim reminder of that futility.

As Hancock County begins construction on its new jail, we should also intensify the discussion about what a successful treatment program for prisoners should look like when it opens. Fortunately, conventional wisdom is shifting toward models that stress rehabilitation in a supervised medical setting — much like an inpatient detox regimen at a hospital or treatment center — combined with counseling and other programs aimed at breaking the cycle of addiction.

Those who say such treatment amounts to coddling criminals would do well to look at the recidivism rate at the jail. Many of those in jail right now for drugs have been there before. Many of these prisoners will not stop using drugs without help.

The county jail already is ground zero for the drug crisis. It represents a unique opportunity to get people off drugs and onto a new path. And as the new facility is built, we have a unique opportunity to put programs in place that can make a difference.

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