MORE TREATMENT IS A BETTER WAY TO STOP THE SCOURGE OF DRUGS

If approved by the legislature, Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposed $22
million increase in state funding for drug treatment will ultimately save
Maryland money ("State offers more funds to treat addicts," Jan. 16). The
"Land of the Free" recently earned the dubious distinction of having the
highest incarceration rate in the world, with drug offenses accounting for
the majority of federal incarcerations. At an average cost of $25,071 per
inmate annually, maintaining the world's largest prison system can hardly
be considered fiscally conservative. Numerous studies have found that
prison transmits violent habits rather than reduces them. Most non-violent
drug offenders are eventually released, but with dismal job prospects
because of their criminal records. Rather than waste resources turning
potentially productive members of society who use drugs into hardened
criminals, we should fund cost-effective treatment. It's time to rethink
the failed drug war and treat all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as
the public health problem it is.

Robert Sharpe, Washington

The writer is a program officer for the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes alternatives to the war on drugs.

REDUCE THE DEMAND

The promise from the governor of substantial increases in state funding for
drug abuse treatment is good news for the citizens of Maryland. Every
addict who can be helped to become drug-free in the community rather than
being locked up in prison would save taxpayers around $20,000 a year. Many
of them (not all) will be able to hold down jobs or to be more productive
in the jobs they now have. And reducing the market for illicit drugs makes
more sense socially and economically than pumping billions of dollars into
our perennially failing war on drugs. Reduce the demand, and we may not
have to spend so much to cut the supply.

Edward Muhlbach, New Freedom, Pa.