Regarding the Chronicle's Nov. 29 article, "Drug seizures at border
soar, causing alarm": Isn't it time we started using some common sense
in dealing with substance abuse?

Because of the way prosecutors reduce sentences in exchange for
information, mandatory sentences for drug offenders punish most
severely those addicts and users with the least information to trade.

As a result, our prisons are filled with low-level drug
offenders.

This is one of the reasons why Chief Justice William Rehnquist
recently described mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders as
"a good example of the law of unintended consequences."

Other unintended consequences of the war on drugs include its racially
disparate impact on people of color, its distortion of the judicial
system by transferring power from the judge to the prosecutor, the
enormous cost to taxpayers and its utter failure to deter drug use.

There are better ways to deal with America's drug problems.

Numerous studies have shown that drug treatment is far more effective
at reducing drug abuse and its consequences than harsh sentencing policies.

Politicians should recognize the truth: We need to treat substance
abuse as a medical and social problem rather than as a criminal
problem. The alternative is an unacceptable police state.

Leigh Benton,
Houston