Letters for Wednesday, April 22

Housing solutions

Excellent idea to create a housing program that connects housing and treatment, the two necessary parts of a successful answer to homelessness. Sharing Mr. Smith’s guest opinion piece (“Bridging ideals of Housing First and Treatment First will put Spokane on smarter path,” April 19) with all levels of government is a way to show this is a good plan. Sending it to Congressman Michael Baumgartner gives input to the federal level that wants to separate these critical solutions that work, adding a request for increasing housing choice vouchers that can be a more successful part of this program, since currently only about half of those who qualify receive vouchers.

As Smith said, we must ask those who represent us to work together, consistently and collaboratively, to build the integrated system our region requires. Our voices can ensure that Spokane has a solution that works and becomes an example for the rest of the country.

Willie Dickerson

Snohomish, Washington

Drug bust economics

The recent “historic drug bust” in the Tri-Cities is a good thing. But it’s just one half of a two-pronged problem. It suppresses drug supply but not demand.

It’s simple economics. Think oil, for example. When oil supply is diminished but demand is not, the price goes up. The same is true for drugs. Sure, with this big seizure, significant drug supply has been removed from the market (like oil supplies from the Middle East). But that makes things ripe for other dealers eager to meet the demand of user/customers in Eastern Washington with more drugs – because drugs are now in limited supply, higher priced and more profitable. Choking off drug supply helps. It feels good. But it doesn’t eliminate drug market demand any more than reducing oil supply stops us from driving our cars.

The solution? Address both sides of the economic equation. Attack demand just as hard. Invest equally (more in fact) in drug prevention and treatment programs. Prevent youths, high-risk groups, families, and communities from becoming drug customers. Unless we do that for the thousands of users who would have purchased those seized drugs in the Tri-Cities, they’ll just keep using. New eager suppliers will backfill the supply. The cycle starts all over.

In short, it’s an endless cycle. It’s been like this for decades. Unless we reduce supply and demand in equal measures, we’ll never win the “drug war.” We’ll just keep playing drug bust Whack-A-Mole.

Steven McNutt

Spokane