MOUNT VERNON — Amy Smart spent five years in the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville for theft, petty theft, and forgery, all related to drug use. Now 12 years sober, she knows personally and professionally the value of prison as a consequence for drug users.
“I was in treatment in lieu of conviction and I screwed that up,” said Smart, owner and executive director of Riverside Recovery Services in Mount Vernon. “Prison was the best thing for me. I got the help I needed.”
Issue 1, the Neighborhood, Safety, Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Amendment voters will see on the Nov. 6 ballot, reclassifies illegal drug possession and use from fifth- or fourth-degree felonies to misdemeanors. That means Common Pleas Judge Richard Wetzel and Municipal Court Judge John Thatcher cannot impose prison time for the first two offenses within a 24-month period; treatment and probation are their only options.
“When possessing a lethal substance becomes a misdemeanor, that can have detrimental effects on crime in Ohio,” said Smart. “It becomes no consequences. It’s a misdemeanor, so you are not going to put me in jail. I’m not going to have a felony hanging over my head.
“It doesn’t give Judge Wetzel or Judge Thatcher or the prosecutors the chance for individualized sentencing based on the amount of substance that they have in their possession,” she continued. “Where’s the threat of having any change?”
Wetzel said that he has already seen the consequences of removing prison as a deterrent. A year ago, Knox County began participating in the T-CAP (Targeted Community Alternatives to Prison) pilot program instituted by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and funded by Gov. John Kasich’s 2018-19 budget.
T-CAP calls for F5 offenders to be treated or incarcerated within the community rather than being sent to state prison. Wetzel said he has seen an increase in the number of F5s after the state instituted T-CAP because the offenders knew they could not go to prison.
“The mentality was ‘party on, I’m not going to prison,’” he said. “Issue 1 will compound that.”
“Families now have no support to get help for their loved ones,” said Thatcher. “Many families are thankful the court imposed jail as treatment because [the offenders] won’t listen to their family.”
Smart’s biggest fear, however, is what Issue 1 doesn’t say.
“I understand wanting to cut down on the first drug offenses that we put in jail, but what Issue 1 doesn’t say is anything about fentanyl,” she said.
Issue 1 lumps all possession offenders — methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, and even date-rape drugs — into one basket, but the drugs are not all equal in terms of potency. Fentanyl is much more lethal. According to the Ohio Department of Health, fentanyl-related drug overdoses jumped from 4 percent of ODs in 2013 to 58.2 percent in 2016.
“So it has increased 54 percent over a period of three years, and that is scary,” said Smart. “Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin. Nineteen grams of fentanyl is enough to kill 75 percent of the city. [Offenders] could have enough fentanyl in their possession to kill thousands of people and they are not going to go to jail. They are going to get probation and a slap on the wrist.”
Personally and professionally, Smart knows the value of treatment.
“I firmly believe in treatment,” she said. “I firmly believe in long-term treatment as well. I see it work with our clients, and even with me personally it worked. But this isn’t going to give judges or prosecutors the opportunity to send anyone to treatment.
“To me, it feels like Ohio is going to be a free-for-all for drug offenders. I believe it would be catastrophic for the state. It’s a huge step backward. It’s going to set all of the hard work of judges and prosecutors and drug courts to get people into treatment backward because there’s no consequences.”
