The battle to decriminalize drugs in Baltimore was dealt a setback at a City Council hearing Wednesday evening, as city officials weighed in against Councilman Jack Young?s proposal to stop the war on drugs.
“More access to drugs could mean more people addicted,” said city Health Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein.
“From a public health perspective, you want to lower the numbers of people who are addicted in general,” he said.
“Prison can provide an incentive for people to stay in drug treatment,” said Adam Brickner, president of Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, a nonprofit organization that runs methadone clinics. “It can make people more committed to treatment if the threat of prison is there.”
But Young cited methadone clinics as proof that government was already providing legalized drugs, and questioned how it would be different if the government gave away heroin as well.
“Methadone is a drug, isn?t it?” Young asked Sharfstein, who responded that methadone ? unlike heroin ? stabilizes addicts.
Baltimore District Court Judge George Lipman, who runs the city?s drug court, said judges would like to refer more addicts to treatment rather than jail, butlacked enough treatment slots.
“We are always looking for alternatives to jail, but we need more resources,” he told Young.
Currently the city funds 600 treatment slots, Brickner said, but more are needed.
“We have the slots available but the question is resources and money.”
Despite a tepid response to the notion of decriminalizing drugs, Young said he would continue to press for changing the focus of the drug war.
“I believe if we legalized drugs today, the murder rate would go down,” he said. “We just don?t want to address the issue, but people are dying and we [have] to face reality.”
