PRISON COMPOUNDS DRUG USE

Working for the Lindersmith Center Drug Policy Foundation and reading the
April 17 editorial, "DRUG REFORM WAITS," on Senate Bill 5419, I agree drug
treatment is a step in the right direction.

An arrest should not be a prerequisite, however. Law enforcement's
continued involvement in addiction is part of the problem.

In order for drug treatment to be effective, policy makers have to tone
down the tough on drugs rhetoric. The threat of prison that coerced
treatment relies upon can backfire when it's actually put to use. Prisons
transmit violent habits and values rather than reduce them. Drug offenders
are eventually released with dismal job projects due to their criminal
records. Turning nonviolent drug offenders into hardened criminals is a
senseless waste of tax dollars.

Zero-tolerence drug laws do not distinguish between occasional drug use and
chronic abuse. The vast majority of illicit drug users hold
jobs. Politically popular mandatory minimums have turned many a tax paying
recreational drug user into a long term tax burden.

It's time to declare peace in the failed drug war and start treating all
substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it
is. Driving illicit drug addiction underground compounds the problem

Robert Sharpe

Washington, DC