Mortensen tosses drug court 'grenade'

Cowlitz County citizens must pressure commissioners to retain program proven to reduce addiction, criminal recidivism

It’s time for the public to join supporters and graduates of Cowlitz County’s Drug Court in coming to its defense.

As reported earlier, the county commissioners are weighing whether to renew the county’s .01% sales tax to support mental health programs, including drug court. 

Commissioners Arne Mortensen and Rick Dahl are hesitating,  and Mortensen sent chills through the drug treatment community last week when he said at a public meeting:  “I don’t think we should do drug court anymore.“

Mortensen didn’t explain his reasons then. When I called him Wednesday, he said the comment was intended to get a discussion going on how to address drug abuse.

“The issue is going to boil down to … what we are doing to do with this drug war.  We have been losing the battle for a long time. It’s time to think about how we are doing to approach this.“

He acknowledged during the public meeting that he was “throwing a hand grenade” and expected to hear a lot of complaints.

He should. 

It’s  impossible to understand that he would have this position after drug court graduates and  officials overwhelmingly asked the commissioners recently to continue funding the program. 

Cowlitz County is among 27 of Washington’s 39 counties to operate an adult drug court. Those who don’t are generally small counties, such  as Wahkiakum. More than 4,000 drug courts operate nationwide, according to state and U.S. Department of Justice statistics.

Terminating Cowlitz County’s 25-year-old drug court would leave this area an outlier. Even some of Washington’s most conservative counties — including  Lewis — operate drug courts and use a mental health tax to support them. Nearly 72% of the state’s counties impose the mental health tax. 

This is because drug courts work, even if they cannot by themselves address the enormous scope of this nation’s narcotics problem. 

Study after study shows that drug courts reduce addiction and criminal recidivism. Stanford University, for example, estimates that $1 spent on drug court saves about $4 in costs for jailing and caring for offenders. Recidivism drops, on average, by 38% to 50% among adult drug court participants. 

Cowlitz County has a similar success story: About 80%  of participants don’t reoffend over a three-year period following completion of drug court, court officials say.

Mortensen is fond of saying he wants documentation of how well government programs work. In the case of drug court, he has it in abundance. Perhaps he doesn’t want to hear it because it conflicts with his agenda to shrink government and taxes.

One would hope, however, that he realizes that crime rates and incarceration costs surely will rise without drug court.

Drug court works because it holds offenders accountable through regular testing, counseling and the threat of incarceration should they prove incorrigible reoffenders. Recovered addicts invariably admit they would not have reformed without the threat of penalty. (This is why Oregon’s drug decriminalization law has had disastrous consequences.)

The mental health tax, which also supports other therapeutic courts, is tiny, amounting to $1 on a $1,000 purchase. Last year it raised $3 million in Cowlitz County and $204 million statewide, according to the state Department of Revenue. 

The county has about $6 million of these revenues in reserve, but those funds would vanish  quickly if the commissioners fail to renew the levy or use it for other purposes, such as building a treatment center —  as Dahl suggested during the same public meeting.

Drug court is an essential program.  Citizens here cannot force the issue through initiative and referendum, and there are no grounds to recall these two commissioners, who continue to anger moderate and progressive voters with ideologically driven decisions.

So supporters need to object the old-fashioned way  — show up at commissioners meetings and firmly tell them that drug court must endure.

Commissioners hold regular public meetings Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with schedules posted on the commission’s web site. The weekly regular meeting — perhaps the best forum to address this issue —  starts at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Cowlitz County Administration Building in Kelso.

Commissioners need to hear from the public before making a grave mistake that has consequences for public health and the cost and quality of law and justice.