House Journal: Page 81: Wednesday, January 13, 1999

The details of our specific recommendations are contained in our budget request 

which we have submitted to you. 
Alexis de Toqueville observed more than 160 years ago that in America, all public 
issues are eventually resolved in the courts.  That observation is as true today as it was 
in the early 19th Century.  And surely one of the most challenging issues  permeating 
our courts in the late 20th Century is drug abuse.
Many of the cases pouring into the court system today involve drug abuse in one 
way or another.  Its impact is not confined to prosecutions for possession or distribution 
of illicit drugs.  Our judges see drug abuse as a major contributing cause in many child 
in need of assistance cases, juvenile delinquency cases, dissolution of marriage cases, 
termination of parental rights cases and domestic violence cases.  The implications are 
profound.  The following information was provided to me by judges from around the 
state who have witnessed the destruction caused by drug abuse. 
Drug addiction is not isolated to one area of the state, one race or one age group. 
Our judges see addicts, who are, or were, professional people, homeless people, single 
parents and married couples, college students, factory workers, homemakers and 
teenagers.  Drug addiction exists in rural Iowa as well as urban Iowa. 
Drug addiction overlaps with child abuse and neglect.  Children often end up in 
foster care or with relatives because they have been abused by their drug addicted 
parents or by others in the household while the parents are in a drug induced haze.  
Nor is it unusual for children to be neglected while their parents feed their drug 
addiction.  In many cases, parental rights are eventually terminated. 	
Drug addiction is the root of many violent crimes.  One of our judges told me of a 
sixteen-year-old boy who was a normal, good natured child until he became hooked on 
meth.  When his mother confronted him about the drug, he threatened to douse her 
with lighter fluid and set her on fire.  Later, he did.
Drug addiction is linked to domestic violence.   A judge in eastern Iowa told me of 
four children whose meth addicted father rammed his vehicle into a car carrying them, 
their mother and a domestic abuse advocate.  The children were traumatized.  Despite 
the dangerous situation, the mother later reunited with her husband and the children 
eventually had to be placed in foster care.    
When dealing with drug addicts, our traditional punitive measures tend to be 
ineffective.  A judge in southern Iowa told me that meth is so addictive that 
probationers routinely fail drug testing even when they are given ten days advance 
notice of the test.  Many addicts return to their addiction as soon as they are released 
from jail or prison.  Many addicts commit more crimes to support their habits.  And 
many addicts end up back in court again and again.	
There is obviously no single solution to the problem. Some judges are exploring 
innovative approaches which strike at the heart of the problem - the addiction.  For 
instance, Judge Linda Reade in Polk County emphasizes treatment of drug-addicted 
defendants in addition to punitive measures.  Judge Reade says that this therapeutic 
approach is a better way to deal with drug-addicted defendants because it focuses on 
ending the addiction. 
The criminal justice system cannot be the exclusive vehicle for ending drug 
addiction.  The entire community must join forces to end this scourge.   

© 1999 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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