editorial comment Nice article describing the causes of failure, then essentially supporting the same failed policies. Police Academy?

Comal County’s district attorney and one of its district judges agreed this past week that the United States government’s “war on drugs” — and its judicial system — just aren’t working when it comes to stopping abuse of alcohol and illegal drugs.

For decades, the government has been trying to enlist its citizens in some form or fashion as allies in the fight — only to find that many of them go over to the other side by creating the very demand the illicit drug trade depends on.

Law enforcement fights what is at best trench warfare against drug-related crime. The two sides, mired in muddy holes they can’t pull themselves out of, stare at one another across no man’s land. They snipe at one another and there are casualties on both sides, but nothing ever really changes.

The judicial system strives to create an environment in which the war’s wounded and its survivors can be rehabilitated. While there are glowing success stories, the weight of the failures is apparent everywhere and bears on society — including right here in New Braunfels.

Police estimate that as much as 90 percent of all crimes are at least tangentially related to substance abuse.

Those cases all go somewhere. Some, for lack of evidence or procedural problems, never get prosecuted. But that isn’t the end of the road, because drug abusers are believed to commit hundreds of crimes to support their habits. For the legal system, there’s always a “next time.”

The ones that get prosecuted — misdemeanor or felony — go to District Attorney Dib Waldrip’s office to be screened, sent to the grand jury for indictment if called for and then put on a court docket.

Misdemeanor cases go before County Court-at-Law judges Charles Stephens or Brenda Chapman. Felony cases go to the county’s three district judges: Jack Robison, presiding in the 207th district; Gary Steel, the 274th, or Charles Ramsay, the 22nd judicial district.

Waldrip and Robison are both former police officers who worked their way through law school — Waldrip in New Braunfels; Robison in St. Louis. Waldrip, a member of a narcotics task force based in South Texas in the mid-1990s, was named prosecutor of the year by the Texas Narcotics Officers’ Association in 1995 for his efforts with the task force leading to the seizure of more than $35 million of cocaine. He attended the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Law Enforcement Academy in Washington, D.C. in 2000.

In 2001, Waldrip was among three prosecutors selected from across the state by Texas’ Office of Court Administration to head up the Felony Judgment Task Force.

Last year, his office secured 400 felony indictments, more than 100 of which were directly on drug charges. About 330 misdemeanor drug possession cases were filed. But Waldrip agrees with police that this doesn’t begin to tell the story. Many criminal cases plead out before indictment. And many thefts and other property crimes are related to drug or alcohol use, and many violent crimes are, as well — even though the statistics don’t show it, Waldrip said.

“A lot of your property crimes — your burglaries, your thefts and the like — I can promise you 90 percent of those are drug-related,” Waldrip said. “Easily half of the felony cases we deal with are drug-related. It gets into your family violence cases — both alcohol and drugs play into that. But also, a lot of your shopliftings and all of that are either to pay for drugs or because they’ve spent what assets they have on drugs.”

Waldrip noted that for the last three to four decades — not even considering the failed alcohol prohibition of decades before — the policy of this country has included some form of what in recent years has been called the “war on drugs.”

“While I would applaud the aspect of that policy that targets suppliers, what I would attempt to criticize, in a constructive way, is that we’ve reduced the risks on the demand end,” Waldrip said.

The government goes after the people who produce the raw products that go into drugs in this country and elsewhere and attempts to target the couriers who bring it here.

But in recent years, Waldrip pointed out, the tendency to downplay the offenses of drug users or even some small-time drug dealers, has hamstrung the ability of the legal system to combat drug use — and has actually increased use.

“From a purely economic standpoint, if you look at it from an aspect of risk, when you reduce that risk, more people are willing to try drugs and your demand curve goes up,” Waldrip said. “Reduce the risks, and people say, ‘Why not try it?’ I’m not saying we should put them all in jail for life, but there needs to be a fast, sure punishment. When you beat your dog four months after he eats your shoe, you aren’t teaching him anything.”

Waldrip said the system is working against itself by decreasing the risk for the end user.

“If demand goes up, no matter what we do on the supply side, it’s going to go up to meet it,” Waldrip said. “The profits are enormous.”

Waldrip said families — especially single-parent families — must work to convince children of the dangers of drugs.

“No matter what you do, what it ultimately boils down to is personal responsibility,” Waldrip said.

The early brushes with the law for a drug abuser are often misdemeanor possession of marijuana cases or arrests for the fraudulent possession of various pills or prescription drugs. Those go to County Court-at-Law and judges Chapman and Stephens. Stephens was elected in 2004 after the legislature authorized creation of a second county court in Comal County — response to increased case loads, which includes increased drug case loads.

“I think even in the short time I’ve been on the bench we’ve seen an increase in the number of drug-related cases,” Stephens said.

The impression he has from law enforcement, Stephens said, with the creation of the Department of Public Safety regional narcotics task force now operating in New Braunfels in conjunction with the Comal County Metropolitan Narcotics Task Force, is that efforts are being stepped up to go after drug crimes. Stephens couldn’t quantify the numbers of cases, he said.

“But we’ll see the statistics by the end of the year,” he said.

Stephens said his goal when he deals with a drug defendant is to try to stop the drug use at the misdemeanor level — before it gets any worse.

“One benefit of this court is that a lot of people are first offenders,” Stephens said. “That doesn’t mean it’s the first time they’ve used drugs — it’s just the first time they’ve been caught. We try to impress upon them at an early stage that they need to stop.”

Many defendants at the county court level go to probation for help in managing their lives and for rehabilitation programs. When that intervention doesn’t work, a repeat offender or a first-time felony offender is likely going to go to Robison’s court, which was jammed Thursday with a day long docket call — and many of the cases involved drug allegations.

“All you have to do is look at today’s docket,” Robison said.

Having heard that police officers believe up to 90 percent of their work is related to substance abuse, Robison said initially he wondered if the figure wasn’t at least a little high.

But he began to reel off the cases he sees. At least 50 percent of assault crimes and maybe 90 percent of property crimes didn’t sound so far-fetched, he said, when one considers use of drugs or alcohol.

“If you consider assaultive offenses, well more than half of them involve people either drunk, high or stoned on something,” Robison said. “Property crimes are regularly committed to get money to pay for drugs. A lot of vandalism is caused by juveniles who get loaded or high and think it’s fun to do these kinds of things.”

Many sexual assaults also involve drugs, he said, with the notable exception of sex crimes perpetrated against children by pedophiles.

“I believe date rape cases involving drugs are vastly under-reported,” the judge added. “I’ve seen it most in Hays County. I don’t think the victims are willing to report them in many cases.”

Robison, now in his 50s, said he could remember one or another variation of the “war on drugs” over his entire career. From his perspective, he said, he would like to see more of the heavy hitters — the kingpins, the dealers and the couriers — come before his bench and hand out the kind of heavy sentences society expects.

“I can remember busting kids for drugs when I was a young cop,” Robison said. “One thing you almost never see is the mules bringing it in getting caught. The user, the guy on the street corner selling it, they’re poor. They’re selling it to pay their suppliers who are pocketing the profits.”

Substance abuse, Robison said, is an enormous drain on society.

“I don’t think we’re being very successful in dealing with it,” he said.

But he wasn’t sure, Robison added, what society could or should do to address it.

“Prohibition hasn’t worked. The latest thing is the drug court, combined with rehabilitation or cognitive programs designed to change behavior. We may be at the point where it’s time to consider a drug court in Comal County,” Robison said.

A bill before this legislature would create another district court — again because of the heavy caseloads here — that would serve only Comal County. Perhaps a drug court wouldn’t be very far off.

“The amount of drugs is horrendous,” Robison said. “I don’t know whether law enforcement is the most effective way to approach it — and it’s certainly not the only way. The best we can do is hope to teach our children of the dangers, and hope they’re smart enough to recognize them and not start using drugs.”

Robison reflected on former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s answer to the problem — one often bashed in some circles as too simplistic — her “Just Say No” campaign. Maybe it is simplistic, but it’s a slogan that’s easy to remember and easy to get behind.

“If anything can save us, maybe it’s that,” Robison said. “If there’s a glimmer of hope, it lies in educating our kids so they know enough not to make these mistakes.”

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