JUDICIAL SYSTEM CAN'T HANDLE EFFECTS OF "ZERO TOLERANCE'"

Mayor Martin O'Malley is an impractical optimist. Most of our crime is
drug-related, and there aren't enough police officers to enforce "zero
tolerance."

The judicial system is snowed under now. We'll never have enough jails
to hold all the offenders. And our parole system is obviously
incapable of handling the existing overload.

But if we take the profits out of drugs, the problem will wither on
the vine. We should treat drug addiction as a disease instead of as a
crime and sell addicts the drugs they need, at cost, through
government dispensaries. Such a program would not produce the
instantaneous results Mr. O'Malley expects, but in 20 years it would
cause a marked improvement. And can anyone realistically say the
current approaches to controlling drugs and crime have had much
success in the past 20 years?

Dorsey Tipton
Baltimore