DRUG ABUSES VICTIMIZE US ALL

In Sheryl McCarthy's May 6 column, "Hooked," concerning our nation's
misguided drug policy, she correctly notes the painfully obvious truth that
we focus too much on punishment and too little on prevention and cure.
However, McCarthy's pronouncement that drug abusers (such as Darryl
Strawberry and Robert Downey Jr.) "are hurting nobody but themselves and
their loved ones" is egregiously false.

Abusers support an industry that breeds violence and treats its workers and
outsiders as a disposable commodity instead of people. From Colombia where
opponents of the drug trade are murdered daily, to the streets of Mexico
and Los Angeles where the poverty-plagued foot soldiers who smuggle the
contraband are frequently shot or incarcerated, to Oklahoma where innocent
victims include automobile fatalities caused by meth-enhanced drivers and
individuals robbed by drug abusers to finance their illness, to society as
a whole which is deprived of the full potential of its citizenry when a
portion of it is incapacitated by drug addiction, drug abuse victims
include a universe far beyond those who merely snort, smoke or inject.

While the solution to the drug problem may not lie in indiscriminate
punishment, it doesn't lie in acceptance either. We are all victimized when
one of us falls prey to substance abuse.

Brian Johnson
Adjunct Law Professor, University of Tulsa
Tulsa