How can we expect people to pick themselves up when all we do is constantly keep them down by kicking them in the face?
In the 1970s and '80s we cultivated the "War on Drugs," a comprehensive plan, including military operations and domestic public relations campaigns aimed at teaching our youth to "Just say no."
Regardless of how you feel about the war on drugs and Nancy Reagan's "Just say no" campaign, the problem we have now is much more complex.
We have dug ourselves into a hole much larger than the one we were in then. According to The Washington Post's "Wonkblog," the U.S. prison population is now more than 2.4 million people, which means 1 out of every 100 American adults is incarcerated. That number has quadrupled since 1980.
The blog also states that, "The most serious charge against 20 percent of state-prison inmates is a drug offense. That's much lower than the 51 percent in federal prisons, though it's still larger than any other single category of offense in state prisons."
So what is the solution? Addicts cause problems in the community. We can't simply legalize drugs and leave them alone as some suggest. Drugs such as heroin and meth, which have taken hold of so many Alaskans in recent years, are horribly addictive and very dangerous. They lead to many more crimes such as property crimes, strong-arm robberies, assaults and other violent crimes aimed at getting money for drugs.
We can make reforms that will help, but they require we do something that is very hard for a public jaded by the trail of destruction drugs and drug-crimes leave in their wake: We need to exercise patience.
Addiction doesn't end in one fell swoop. Recovery is a very time-consuming, emotionally taxing and exhausting process. While giving up possibly the only coping mechanism addicts have ever had, they are also re-examining the most painful parts imaginable of their inner souls. Things those of us who have never struggled as an addict could never imagine.
Those who struggle with addiction, even those very young, often gain a great deal of life experience due to their enormous struggles. They can turn that life experience into a benefit. However, that is a long, emotional process. In the end, if they are successful, society gains new productive members, and we save money in the prison system and lower the crime rate.
It will take an enormous amount of reform to achieve this goal. It will not happen overnight.
The first step would be crime classification and sentencing reform. Make simple drug possession offenses -- where the offender is clearly a user, not a dealer -- misdemeanor charges for first and second offenses. This way, addicts have a chance to work their way through recovery and are not labeled as felons right off the bat, which would make it much harder to find housing, employment, and other services they need to succeed.
Next, we need to foster an environment of healing as a community, rather than an environment of isolation. Addicts already feel isolated, so shipping them off to prison and isolating them further only deepens their sense of alienation from society.
That healing community should include therapeutic drug courts with understanding judges who have plenty of discretion, and are able to check on addicts' progress with counselors and social workers. Their work would be paired with transitional living communities that begin with detox beds and move on to a therapeutic living communities, followed by transitional help into independent healthy living environments.
Much of this can be paid for through grants from nonprofit corporations in cooperation with state and local governments. But even if government funded the entire program, it would be much cheaper than the cost of revolving-door incarceration.
Many of you will say this won't work and we need to lock these people up so that they won't commit more crimes. To some extent you're correct. However, if we can effect change for 20 or 30 percent of the population over time, we will save money and lower the prison population.
More importantly, we will save a lot of lives and welcome a lot of wonderful people back into society.
Mike Dingman is a fifth-generation Alaskan born and raised in Anchorage. He is a former UAA student body president who has worked, studied and volunteered in Alaska politics since the late '90s. Email, michaeldingman@gmail.com.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.