As an organization, Create Change has only been around for about a year, but our leaders have been working on this stuff for the last five years. We try to introduce community people into a standard argument in favor of drug policy reform, in support of public safety. To make it into a public health agenda.

Specifically, we have looked at the issue of treatment v. incarceration and decriminalization of drug addiction. Specifically, crack and powder cocaine discrepancy laws in Connecticut. We tried to think about a treatment on demand argument, but Connecticut has two situations which doesn’t allow that. One is the crack v. powder cocaine statute which pretty much says 0.5 grams of crack gives a mandatory minimum of 5 years in prison. In order to get that same mandatory minimum you would need 28.3 grams of powder cocaine. Five grams of crack cocaine- it could be residue in a pipe. It’s about $20-30 on the street. Whereas 28.3 grams of cocaine is an ounce, that would be about $750 on the street.

The second issue is Connecticut’s statute in that the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services does not provide detox for crack cocaine addicts. Here’s what happens- the population that gets arrested and is facing mandatory minimums for 0.5 grams of crack cocaine are addicts and the poorest of the poor. DMHAS is supposed to help the poorest of the poor and by not providing detox for the poorest of the poor in essence says getting caught with crack cocaine requires mandatory treatment- but there is no detox. So the crack addict gets locked up for at least 30 days and then gets to go to treatment through DMHAS. And of course DMHAS is short on beds and doesn’t have enough of this or that. So people have to try to find their own treatment and usually wind up in an outpatient service or group. The people who actually get into the programs do very well, and we also know people who don’t do well. It depends on if you got a good clinician and a good support network. A lot of people in those programs are court mandated- the average addict on the street don’t usually just walk up and ask for treatment.

If you have private insurance you got a number of options. If they have state insurance, they can’t get detox for cocaine treatment. But with general assistance they could go to DMHAS. The chances of finding a private physician to take them is unrealistic. There is a severe wait list for DMHAS- months easy. When we talk to patrol officers on the street, they keep a running list of who’s waiting for a bed for their own records. So they’ll say, go on Huntington Street and say- “Come on, Lisa, get off the corner,” and she’ll say, “Ahh, you know, I’m waiting for my bed.” So uninsured-on-the-street-addict, who want help, they can’t find it.