Arrests don't help. Treatment does.

Tuesday morning, Columbia woke up to find five of our own arrested and charged for selling illegal drugs. While we certainly do not condone the activity they allegedly engaged in, these arrests, symptomatic of a broader problematic paradigm, are not constructive for the five or the Columbia community.

The consequences to society are dire. Those incarcerated for drug crimes are more likely to emerge from lockup with more criminal connections, addicted to harder drugs, and more likely to commit violent crime than when they went in. Part of the tragedy of the Drug War is that tax dollars fund a strategy that pushes the drug trade underground, making our streets less safe, encouraging organized crime, and increasing health costs and social consequences.

Additionally, time and money spent enforcing drug laws result in fewer convictions for violent crimes like rape and murder. Plus, incarceration of drug offenders heavily contributes to prison overcrowding.

As for the students, their arrests and the ensuing media firestorm will result in disproportionate, untold damage. Potential employers will see the students’ names tarred by the news stories of the last few days, no matter what happens in court and without regard to everything else they have done in their lives. Any time in jail will likely induce trauma and further distance these five students from their potential. The consequences of their non-violent, victimless actions will overshadow and diminish the good they have done in school and outside of classes, as well as the good they may do in the future.

And for what? Will Tuesday’s events reduce any of the very real harms that are often associated with drug use?

Unlikely—five drug dealers removed means five new employment opportunities which will quickly be filled. Even after “Operation Ivy League,” the drug trade carries on, in line with decades of data on the Drug War approach. Arrests do nothing to address demand. Without drug users, there would be no drug dealers. Every dollar of drugs sold is a dollar of drugs bought by someone, and both sides participate in currently illegal acts. It is simple market economics—like it or not, buyers mean sellers looking to make a profit.

Troublingly, Drug War strategies also do nothing to address addiction. For better or worse, as has been and will always be the case, in any community, including at Columbia, many desire to use drugs. Some of this use, unfortunately, will be problematic. Addiction is a heart-wrenching thing to experience or watch a loved one struggle with, and it is all too often deadly.

Experience with such tragedy is what inspires the involvement of many in Students for Sensible Drug Policy. We earnestly seek to reduce the trauma sometimes associated with drug use.

Sadly, this raid is emblematic of ineffective policy that harms and punishes users—regardless of whether or not their use is dangerous, rather than assist the people who need help with addictions and overdoses.

We must look forward, because these risks need to be addressed. While we are concerned about the punitive focus of some of Columbia’s drug policies, we applaud Dean Shollenberger for stating that “students’ health and well-being is [Columbia’s] utmost concern,” in his Tuesday e-mail to the community and for encouraging those who do need help with substance abuse to access the resources Columbia has available. Over the last few weeks, both the Columbia College and Engineering Student Councils unanimously endorsed a lifesaving Good Samaritan Policy—an evidence-based public health approach that prevents fatal overdoses without increasing drug use—and we look forward to working with the administration to establish it.

A criminal justice approach increases the hazards associated with drug use and creates new tragedies. We must focus on addressing drug problems, such as addiction, and ending poor drug policy-induced problems, such as black-market violence. The sensible course of action for both government and campuses is to shift away from a punitive paradigm and toward one centered on public health. Lives depend on it.

Michael Spitzer-Rubenstein is a junior at Columbia College majoring in urban studies and treasurer for Columbia’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Katharine Celentano is a sophomore at the School of General Studies and director of media relations for CU SSDP.