DISAGREES WITH EDITORIAL

I am responding to The Tribune's anti-Proposition 36 editorial. I can see
The Tribune's reasons for your stance. A large population of SLO works for
the prison system, California Men's Colony and Atascadero State Hospital.
Proposition 36 would take 25,000 simple-possession prison-bound inmates
from the system. We are talking job security.

These are the people who want to put a prison in your backyard. The war on
drugs has made prison building boomtown. Anybody out there think the war on
drugs has worked? Have I got a bridge to sell you. After 30 years of this
nonsense, drugs are cheap and more plentiful than ever and the prisons are
overflowing. It is time for a change. Rehabilitation works. You get the
most bang for your buck.

Rehab is somewhere around 70 percent effective. That is so much better than
what we are getting now. At this time only 7 percent of the people who want
rehab can get it. We need to follow the lead of most of Europe and use
rehabilitation and education to stop the abuse of drugs rather than just
throwing people in jail.

Proposition 36 will affect people conviced of first- and second-time simple
possession. With Proposition 36, on the third offense there will be jail.
For sales there is jail. For manufacture there is jail. For date-rape drugs
there is jail.

Please vote yes on Proposition 36.

Gary Gall, Cambria