CRACKDOWN NOT ALWAYS RIGHT

Re: your Dec. 26 article, "State gives grant to fight meth":

How should Ventura County respond to illicit methamphetamine use?
Cracking down on users is not necessarily the answer.

During the crack epidemic of the '80s, New York City chose the
zero-tolerance approach, opting to arrest and prosecute as many
offenders as possible. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry
was smoking crack and America's capital had the highest per capita
murder rate in the country. Yet, crack use declined in both cities
simultaneously.

Simply put, the younger generation saw firsthand what crack was doing
to their older brothers and sisters and decided for themselves that
crack was bad news. This is not to say nothing can be done about
methamphetamine. Access to drug treatment is critical for the current
generation of meth users. Diverting resources away from prisons and
into cost-effective treatment would save both tax dollars and lives.
Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

The U.S. Department of Justice research brief that confirms my claims
regarding the spontaneous decline of crack cocaine can be found online
at http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/187490.txt.

Robert Sharpe, Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy,
Arlington, Va.