TREATMENT CAN WORK IF DRUG WAR ENDS

Editor -- According to your Oct. 4 editorial, drug testing is the key
to any successful treatment program. Do you feel that alcoholics
should have their bodily fluids monitored under the threat of prison
as well as drug users? Opponents of Proposition 36 ignore both the
hypocrisy of America's drug laws and how selective criminalization of
public health problems only make matters worse.

In order for drug treatment to be truly effective -- and not
necessarily preceded by an arrest -- policymakers are going to have to
tone down the zero-tolerance rhetoric of the drug war. Zero-tolerance
attitudes discourage the type of honest discussion necessary to
facilitate treatment. Driving illicit drug addiction underground is
counterproductive and only compounds the problem.

Would alcoholics seek treatment if doing so was tantamount to
confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would sentencing every
incorrigible alcoholic to a life sentence behind bars accomplish
anything? Increased drug treatment options are a step in the right
direction, but the success of treatment will be severely limited until
peace is declared in the failed drug war.

ROBERT SHARPE,
Students for Sensible Drug Policy Washington