INCARCERATING DRUG DEALERS HAS LITTLE EFFECT

Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Kemba Smith, a first-time non-violent offender, is serving a 24-year federal
prison sentence for her role in her late boyfriend's crack-distribution
ring. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the average sentence
for a homicide conviction is 12 years and five months.

Was Ms. Smith's crime two times worse than murder? Or has our legal system
become so distorted by the war on drugs that victimless crimes are now a
higher priority than violent offenses?

In a rational society, prisons exist to protect the people outside them. How
exactly am I being protected by the incarceration of a single mother with no
history of violence for a quarter-century?

Incarcerating a thief or a murderer means this person will not be able to
steal from me or kill me as long as he is behind bars. Incarcerating a drug
dealer means that if I wish to obtain drugs, I will have to get them from
somebody else.

Since 1980, the number of drug offenders behind bars has increased from
50,000 to more than 400,000 with no apparent effect on the availability or
popularity of illegal drugs. In light of such information, it becomes
obvious that our drug laws do not serve a pre-emptive purpose, but are
simply a jihad against those who challenge the hegemony of the alcohol and
tobacco purveyors in the recreational-drug market.

Patrick Froehlich, Richmond