Tim Trott’s Blog

I was sitting watching CNN tonight when I saw a fascinating statistic. In 2001, Afghanistan produced 12% of the world’s poppy crop. The poppy, as we all know, is the lovely flower that produces the key ingredient in heroin, opium. Today, our allies in the “war on terror” produce 93% of the world’s poppy crop. We complain about drugs from Mexico and other places in Latin America, yet our young men and women are dying propping up a government that encourages the production of this deadly plant. Frankly, I’m puzzled. Our politicians have turned drug policy into a political expedient with their get tough on crime slogans and mandatory minimum prison sentences for even nonviolent offenders. Yet at the same time they fund a nation that produces the very poison these politicos decry.

What does this have to do with Chester County? Up until earlier this year our county had a program in place designed to address drug policy on several fronts. Known as Recovery Court, this was a demanding program that combined punishment (including incarceration), very strict supervision and rehabilitation. Recovery Court brought together law enforcement and the health-care community. It was successful in punishing offenders while rehabilitating them and deterring drug use in our county.

So what happened? The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania stopped funding the program. Recovery Court was well regarded by citizens, the district attorney, health-care professionals, even defense lawyers. It was a model of optimum cooperation among various competing constituencies. It is, for now, extinct. We all realize that Harrisburg is not a bottomless well for funding programs like these. Recovery Court was not glamorous. It wasn’t a job creator, or a revenue generator. What it did do was address the drug problem, head-on, from all the necessary perspectives. It helped clients of mine.

What does this have to do with poppy planting in Afghanistan? Our federal government funds an Afghan government that is, effectively, the world’s largest drug dealer. American men and women die in support of that government. Meanwhile, an effective anti-drug program goes under for lack of money. I know there is a difference between federal and state funding. But couldn’t the two just get together once in a while. It just might save some American lives from the darkness of drug addiction.