Prevention is a better strategy

Gazette Editorial Board

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Drug problems continue to plague our society. Most Iowans know someone who has struggled with abuse of illicit street or prescription substances. Law enforcement can only do so much to discourage an illegal industry that has created thousands of addicts in Iowa alone.

Increasingly, well-executed prevention efforts and treatment at an early stage of abuse risk is proving to be more effective and less costly in the long run than relying on our prison systems to handle the problem.

So it's good to see that Iowa is getting some new assistance on the prevention side. A federal grant of $22 million will be shared by our state and three others to establish screening centers in a variety of medical clinics and non-typical sites. Patients determined to be potential risks for developing serious drug abuse problems will be evaluated and then referred to treatment.

This Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment program has already made inroads as an intervention tool in other states, such as Massachusetts.

Prevention/treatment strategies used locally are proving to work. Take, for example, drug treatment courts in Linn and Johnson counties, introduced in 2007 and 2008, respectively, as an alternative to prison time for non-violent adult offenders. They have yielded more than 40 graduates who emerged clean and sober and stayed out of the prison system, at a cost much less than incarceration.

At the teenage level, a Johnson County intervention program used in high schools over the last three years is credited with helping two-thirds of the students that the screening identified as high risk to avoid serious drug problems. Unfortunately, a federal grant funding that program has run out.

That, of course, also could happen with the new grant just announced for statewide screenings. Even so, Iowa should find a way to continue effective intervention strategies with state and local resources. The payoff could reduce the pressure on prisons and increase the number of people contributing to society.

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