TREATMENT CAN WORK IF DRUG WAR ENDS Editor -- According to your Oct. 4 editorial, drug testing is the key to any successful treatment program. Do you feel that alcoholics should have their bodily fluids monitored under the threat of prison as well as drug users? Opponents of Proposition 36 ignore both the hypocrisy of America's drug laws and how selective criminalization of public health problems only make matters worse. In order for drug treatment to be truly effective -- and not necessarily preceded by an arrest -- policymakers are going to have to tone down the zero-tolerance rhetoric of the drug war. Zero-tolerance attitudes discourage the type of honest discussion necessary to facilitate treatment. Driving illicit drug addiction underground is counterproductive and only compounds the problem. Would alcoholics seek treatment if doing so was tantamount to confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would sentencing every incorrigible alcoholic to a life sentence behind bars accomplish anything? Increased drug treatment options are a step in the right direction, but the success of treatment will be severely limited until peace is declared in the failed drug war. ROBERT SHARPE, Students for Sensible Drug Policy Washington
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