TREATMENT, NOT PRISON FOR MARIJUANA USE

In response to Michael Henderson's article and the Reno
Gazette-Journal's editorial of Dec. 12, I can only laugh at Washoe
District Attorney Dick Gammick's reaction to the Nevada Supreme Court
commission's suggestion of reduced penalties for marijuana possession.

Incarcerating any drug user in prison is draconian at best and a
complete waste of monies. Instead of pushing the drug
user/addict/offenders through the proverbial revolving door of jails
and prisons, we should steer them toward the help they obviously
need. Either that or simply legalize currently illegal drugs and
spend the money saved on making treatment available to those who want
it. In the 1950s, the American Medical Association concluded that
addiction to any mind-altering substance is a disease. As far as I
know, other diseases are treated by by doctors and hospitals.

According to Gammick, marijuana is the "gateway to other drugs," and
judges throughout Nevada concur that drugs are involved in
approximately 50 percent of criminal cases, so let's do the obvious:
Treat the drug user, save money and reduce crime in one easy lesson.

Addiction is a disease of relapse interspersed with periods of
sobriety. Simply using the threat of incarceration and/or actual
incarceration will achieve nothing except produce unhappy, angry and
of course still-addicted parolees.

- -Paul C. Gorman, Reno