April 18, 2016
"The logical approach is a shift toward a strategy that reduces demand for drugs, not just the supply.
Seattle’s Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program is a clear example. LEAD is a collaboration effort between police and human services to redirect people arrested for low-level drug crimes from jail to treatment, mental-health care, housing and job training. With research showing it reduces recidivism by about 60 percent, no wonder that cities from Santa Fe, N.M., to Albany, N.Y., have begun copying it."