TARGET THE ROOTS OF CRIME

Re: Minimum drug sentences proposed Nov. 21

Ottawa's proposed drug strategy, which includes mandatory minimum
prison terms for drug dealers, will simply not work. It smacks of a
strategy driven by hype, emotion and political expediency. It will do
nothing to reduce the use of drugs in this country. Mandatory minimum
prison terms will do nothing but swell Canada's burgeoning prison population.

One of the reasons the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the
Western world is its draconian drug laws, which include mandatory
minimum prison sentences and which prey on the socially and
economically disadvantaged.

Can we not learn something from the U.S. about a failed drug strategy
that dates back to the 1970s? Or are we slow learners or simply don't
care? America's punitive laws have not stopped the flow of drugs into
and the use of drugs in that country.

It's about time we start treating drug addiction for what it is -
namely a public-health problem. Costly incarceration and political
grandstanding will never work.

Emile Therien, Ottawa