PUNISHMENT IS A CRIME

Re: "Catch and release" (cover story, by Janelle Weiner, CN&R, April 16):

The story of how Julius Johnson and other addicts were treated by the
criminal-justice system shows the bone-deep immorality and mental
corruption involved in promoting drug prohibition. The lies begin
with a repetition of the notion that people can be "saved from
themselves" by a jail term. Needless to say, this theory has utterly
failed for more than 90 years.

Punishing where no injury to another has been done goes against the
biblical admonition commanding that criminal punishment must equal
the injury done and no more ("life for life, eye for eye, tooth for
tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound,
bruise for bruise").

Julius Johnson has not murdered or blinded anyone, he has knocked out
no teeth, and there is no maiming in his record, yet drug crusaders
think nothing of sending people like him to prison repeatedly when
the man has harmed no one. It's worth remembering that the Nazis were
also great promoters of punishing victimless crimes.

America's drug crusade is an abomination, a blasphemy and a crime
against humanity.

Ralph Givens

Daly City