DECRIMINALIZING DRUGS ISN'T THE ANSWER

The war on drugs is routinely criticized for placing too great an emphasis
on law enforcement and paying too little attention to treating those
addicted. I have witnessed the near futile battle to stem the flow of drugs
that cross our borders and seep into our neighborhoods.

In his Jan. 12 letter, Robert Sharpe of the Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy
Foundation wrote that it is time to rethink the failed drug war and start
treating drug use as a public-health problem.

While I agree that treating addiction is part of the solution and one that
receives too little attention, calling drug use a public-health problem
seems to imply users of illicit drugs are not responsible for their actions.

Substance abuse is destructive and dangerous to the user and community.
Those who profit from the use of illicit drugs and provide the young with
mind-altering substances should pay the price for their criminal actions.
Those who take drugs and cause harm should, too.

I strongly agree with Sharpe that drug laws in Iowa and across the country
are enforced in a discriminatory manner. African-American men and women are
incarcerated disproportionately in this country and, as Sharpe's foundation
can prove, this is not due to higher occurrences of drug use or activity.

Unfortunately, Sharpe points to this inequality in an attempt to build a
political argument to legalize drugs and not to reform a criminal-justice
system that is anything but blind to the color of one's skin.

Decriminalizing drugs would send the wrong message and be harmful to
society. Yes, more attention and dollars should be spent reducing use and
helping those who are addicted.

We should continue to attempt, when reasonable, to stop the stream of
illicit substances into the United States, and we should take every measure
to teach children not to use them.

It is not time to legalize drugs. It is time to refocus our energy on
decreasing their use and to fixing the system where the color of a person's
skin has more to do with determining his fate than the severity of his
actions.

- -Graham Gillette
Des Moines.