DRUG USERS, NOT DEALERS, THE PROBLEM

Editor, The Chronicle

I just finished reading your April 16 editorial, "Busting the dealers." So
Burke County spent a year getting the goods on drug dealers. Now they may
put them in prison. This procedure is like locking up the car a drunk
driver drove but letting the drunk go free. The real drug problem is the
"user" not the dealer. Until we take users off the street and dry up the
demand for drugs a whole new set of dealers will replace the ones that were
busted. ...

Since the early 1950s, the U.S. has been busting drug dealers. Has this
stopped the sale of drugs? No. Annual street sales come to multi-millions
of dollars. It's time to build some prisons where the users can be treated,
maybe a program like "three strikes and you're out" or, in this case
"you're in."

First-time offenders would get one year, second-time offenders, two and
third-time offenders, 10 years.

Instead of sending money to Colombia to stem the flow of drugs, we could
build a few prisons. We could also sell all the helicopters we sent them
and bring our American advisers in Colombia home. ...

Dale Warner, Aiken