Officers could do real police work if fewer users in jail

If we stopped arresting and incarcerating drug users and our police had to
pursue real criminals, Police Chief John H. Turner's force would have to
solve real crimes find the rapist, solve murder cased and catch a theif.
Police would have to return to food oldfashioned investigative police wouk
and lay off their snitches and confidential informants. That Turner is
proud of Washington's Lt. Gov. Brad Owen comes as no suprise to me.

Turners comments on I685 are just more of the same political posturing
about being tough on crime, when it is long past time to get smart on
social problems. Why should our limited prison space be taken up by drug
users when it has been proven that drug treatment is far more effective
thatn incarceration? It costs the taxpayer far less too.

I am weary of the text of I685 being misrepresented. Turner wrote, "It is
clear that uf I685 were to pass, heroin and other illegitimate drugs would
become legal." Those drugs would not become legal; they would be available
through prescription by a physician. Morphine is prescribed now and remains
a controlled substance. The same would be true of heroin if I685 were to
pass. Europian physicians prescribe heroin for pain management and ahving
done so, they did not stand by for an epidemic of crime.

My hope is that the people of Washington state can see past the same
hysterical political rhetoric of the past 30 years and see their way to
pass a humane and effective policy. I am voting yes on i685 and I'll be
proud of anyone who does.

Nora Callahan
Colville