Special session needed on substance abuse

Alaska legislators and the governor are currently meeting in a special session to discuss a project to bring North Slope gas to market. The session — which many legislators have publicly said isn’t likely to result in any action — is being touted by the governor as vital to ensuring the state’s future fiscal health.

But there’s a far greater threat to the health and future of Alaska, and that’s the current scourge of drug and alcohol abuse that’s tearing up communities across the state.

In Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula, the use of “Spice” has prompted frustrated citizens and government officials to stage protests and lobby for increased penalties for the use of these dangerous synthetic substances. In Bush Alaska, alcohol abuse is fueling out-of-control rates of domestic violence and suicide. Here in the Mat-Su, methamphetamine and opiate abuse is contributing to rates of violence and property crime that have caused people to band together by the thousands in hastily formed online neighborhood watch groups.

The regularity of shootings, armed robberies, car thefts and overdoses around here is the fallout of drug abuse. Is this really the kind of place we want to leave for our children?

Alaska’s legislators have recently been tasked with reducing the overall rate of people in prison, which means we’re currently at a crossroads on how we deal with these problems. We can’t continue to simply throw more and more people into jail and hope for the best. That solution has produced nothing but an exploding prison population — not a safer society.

Our legislators need to realize that these issues aren’t going to go away. In fact, if the state’s budget situation and future economy are as bleak as we’re being told, these problems could very well get worse before they get better.

Rather than another session in Juneau where our elected officials tell us how they plan to “get tough” on crime, we’d like to see a special session called to look at how Alaska can devise a comprehensive plan to deal with substance abuse.

For too long, the state has looked at these issues individually rather than collectively. There is no overarching plan in place to get more people into treatment, nor are there enough social programs in place to help people get back into the workforce after leaving jail or recovery programs.

One solution isn’t going to solve the myriad problems facing our state. Instead, we’re going to need many different solutions and ideas designed to both get people out of the cycle of addition and prevent more from falling into this dangerous trap. That’s going to require a lot of work, the kind of work that can only be done when legislators are forced to take a long, hard look at the problem.

It’s also going to require a lot of money, in the form of increased funding for education and treatment programs. It’s either that or spend more money on jails down the road — a strategy that’s already proved futile.

The single biggest issue facing Alaska isn’t the state’s looming fiscal crisis. We’ve been in dire straits before, and Alaskans have always found ways to pull through.

It’s time Alaska’s legislators just said no to the status quo and developed a comprehensive strategy to deal with the growing threat posed by substance abuse.