REVISITING DRUG LAWS

We whole heartedly endorse a proposal to reevaluate
Colorado's drug-sentencing laws and examine alternatives to prison for
non-violent drug offenders.

The War on Drugs has evolved into a travesty, spurring a 476 percent
increase over the past decade in the number of Americans imprisoned
for drug offenses.

Building more and more prisons has become an enormous industry, fueled
by the jailing of more and more people who desperately need treatment
and rehabilitation - but who stand very little chance of receiving
such help in prison.

Our society grudgingly has come to accept alcoholism as a disease
rather than a moral affliction. We don't jail alcoholics unless
they're caught driving while drunk or committing some other crime. But
because drugs are illegal, we view addicts as felons rather than
people with a disease.

So we will imprison them again and again, racking up another $150
billion in social costs over the next 15 years rather than spending
$21 billion for treatment, the Rand Corp. reports.

Meanwhile, addicted mothers are taken away from their children, who
often then enter foster care costing $15,000 to $20,000 a year.

Huge numbers of African-Americans and Latinos are imprisoned, making
up more than 56 percent of prisoners though they compose only 21
percent of Colorado's population.

That's why we support the study proposed by three state Democrats,
Sen. Dorothy Rupert of Boulder and Denver Reps. Penfield Tate III and
Ben Clarke.

But we cannot support their entire SB 104, which also would impose a
moratorium on prison expansion through July 1, 2003, while the study
is undertaken.

Contrary to our wishes, there simply is no guarantee that
drug-sentencing laws will be reformed in time to radically reduce our
prison population. And until the population is reduced, overcrowding
of Colorado prisons would only exacerbate inhumane conditions that
already plague some of these facilities.

We encourage Rupert, Tate and Clarke to recast their legislation to
mandate the review of drug laws. But until such reforms are under way,
we cannot risk further punishment of those who already have been
incarcerated.