ZERO TOLERANCE COMPOUNDS THE PROBLEM

In regard to your editorial March 24, "Distasteful - and now illegal," the
U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the drug testing of pregnant women on
constitutional grounds, but there are compelling health arguments as well.
If the invasive practice had continued, the threat of criminal sanctions
would discourage pregnant women who use drugs from seeking prenatal care.
This would only increase maternal and infant mortality and morbidity.

The zero tolerance approach to illicit drugs compounds the problem. When
drug use is driven underground, individuals suffering from chronic
addiction, pregnant or otherwise, are less likely to seek treatment. Would
alcoholics seek help 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. The vast majority of drug users hold jobs and pay taxes.
Turning potentially productive members of society into hardened criminals
serves no purpose. Alcohol, incidentally, causes the greatest number of and
most severe birth defects. It kills more Americans annually than all
illegal drugs combined.

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, alcohol
and tobacco would both be illegal and marijuana would not. 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.

Robert Sharpe, program officer

Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation

Washington, D.C.