City ramps up drug policy reform efforts
Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick and community leaders have stepped up efforts to reform local drug enforcement policies, as part of an ongoing attempt to curb substance abuse, most recently the use of heroin.
The mayor hosted a packed free screening at Cinemapolis on Feb. 16 of the documentary “The House I Live In,” which earned Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 for its critical examination of the war on drugs. During the subsequent panel discussion, Myrick said members of the Ithaca Municipal Drug Policy Committee — which he formed in September 2014 to revise local drug policies — have made significant progress in their efforts to produce solutions that will be proposed this spring.
“The police chief has been very active in our committee as well as the district attorney,” Myrick said. “And once they come up with their recommendations, we’re going to take those to the police department.”
Law enforcement officials, as well as health care providers, social service workers and stakeholders from the private sector are part of the committee. A small group of them traveled to Seattle to explore a new pre-booking program known as Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion, which gives police officers the option to redirect low-level drug offenders to rehabilitation centers instead of jail, the mayor said.
“You’re just getting people directly into help,” Myrick said. “And in Seattle, they’re seeing great progress with it and we’re very interested in that.”
The Ithaca Police Department said its officers abide by a zero tolerance policy and give violators the maximum charge when practical. Plea bargains, the department said, can frustrate law enforcement.
“We don’t want to send the message that we’re pissed off at the courts or the courts are useless and they just let anybody walk free,” Jamie Williamson, the department’s public information officer, said. “But, on the same token, there are times when we’re frustrated with what a judge or what a district attorney’s office will do. We have seen cases where we’ve put in a significant amount of investigative legwork, and the case ends in what we deem to believe a weak sentence.”
But, criminalization, the mayor said, has not solved the problem. Although the city police department’s record-keeping system does not distinguish between drug and alcohol offenses, heroin has become more prevalent.
“Especially over the last 20 years, we’ve seen a steady increase in heroin possession, heroin overdoses and heroin sales here in the city,” Williamson said.
Preventative measures could bridle deaths from heroin overdoses, which have risen more drastically in the northeast than any other region in the United States, according to an October 2014 CDC report. First-time experimentation with the drug nearly doubled between 2007 and 2012, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said, from 373,000 to 669,000 reported uses.
“It’s how available it is,” Bill Rusen, CEO of Cayuga Addiction Recovery Services said. “And we’ve had a couple of overdose deaths. We had them in a very compressed period of time. I think we had two in about 48 hours. And that will scare the heck out of a community, no matter how big it is.”
Marijuana and alcohol abuse services still account for the lion’s share of the treatments Rusen’s office provides. Heroin presents problems, Rusen said, because the physiological addiction leads to symptoms that are more difficult to manage.
People need to engage in conversations on drug policies in order to bring about change, Travis Brooks, program administrator for the Greater Ithaca Activities Center and moderator of the panel, said.
“I think there’s opportunities for people to show up, they’ve just got to show up,” Brooks said.
Stephen Adams 