NOT THE FINAL ANSWER

EDITOR:

The Douglas County drug court program is definitely a step in the right
direction, but an arrest should not be a necessary prerequisite for
treatment. Law enforcement's continued involvement in addiction is part of
the problem. In order for drug treatment to be truly effective,
policymakers are going to have to tone down the tough-on-drugs rhetoric.
Would alcoholics seek treatment if doing so were tantamount to confessing
to criminal activity? Likewise, would putting every incorrigible alcoholic
behind bars and saddling them with criminal records prove cost-effective?

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. Keep in mind that most drug offenders are eventually
released, with dismal job prospects due to criminal records.

Turning non-violent drug offenders into hardened criminals is not a good
use of tax dollars. Zero-tolerance 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 taxpaying 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 only
compounds the problem.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A Program Officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, www.drugpolicy.org