The deaths of Abhijit Mahato and Eve Carson have triggered a blamestorm about what was and wasn't done in the juvenile justice and probation systems to keep track of two young men accused in the killings, Laurence Alvin Lovette and Demario James Atwater, both of Durham.

The questions and finger-pointing are predictable but necessary. We should find out what went wrong and fix what needs to be fixed.

But can we think a little bigger, please? How about doing more -- much more -- to keep unemployed young men from broken families out of the criminal justice system in the first place?

Start with drugs. Drugs may not have been a significant factor in the Mahato or Carson slayings; police have not indicated that Atwater or Lovette dealt in drugs.

Still, drugs are a central element in the whole pathology of gangs, guns and dangerous neighborhoods. Drugs breed crime and criminals and wreck families. You don't have to dig far into the life of most criminals to find some intersection with illegal drugs.

Last December, Rolling Stone had an eye-opening report, "How America Lost the War on Drugs." The so-called war, it noted, has dragged on for 35 years and cost $500 billion, and yet illegal drugs are as abundant and cheap as in the 1970s. Little has improved but the quality and potency of the marijuana and cocaine.

There are now more than 2.3 million Americans in jail or prison. At some point, you'd think it would dawn on people that arresting our way out of the drug problem hasn't worked.

Nope. Timid politicians still find it easier to be "tough on crime" and build prisons than provide money for treatment programs.

Treatment doesn't cure everything -- many addicts who get it fall off the wagon. But the evidence is compelling that the payoff is huge. Removing even a modest percentage of drug users from the cycle of addiction and crime makes cities safer and saves taxpayers a pile of law-enforcement and prison-building money.

Another creative approach can be found in High Point, where police have targeted just the worst of the city's drug markets, the ones that attract prostitution and violent crime. They identified the dealers in these markets and gathered evidence against them.

Then they called in those dealers, showed them the evidence and made an offer: Stop selling and we'll help you; keep selling and we'll nail you.

Violent crime and drug-related murders in High Point are down significantly.

Like many American cities, Durham has an assembly line that's creating young criminals faster than they can be locked up.

Let's get serious about dealing with this. It's the least we can do for Eve and Abhijit.