DRUG WAR FILLS PRISONS

The reason Florida's prison growth is bad public policy is not
because there are more Floridians, and not because Floridians have
grown more violent ("New law gives prisons sensible out," Our
Opinion, June 15).

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Florida's prison
population has been growing 2.5 to 3 times as fast as Florida's
population, and shows no sign of leveling off. In 1980 Florida had
very few drug prisoners; now they comprise about 20 percent of our
prisoners, many for marijuana. Just as bootleggers became tax-paying
businessmen when alcohol prohibition ended, so would grow-house operators.

Every day Floridians see reports of "grow-house" busts. Florida's war
on marijuana is a costly disgrace, sold to voters by the same
politicians who now would marginalize them further from the
mainstream by sending them out of state. Better solutions to
overcrowded prisons can be found, but they require imagination, a,
quality lacking in Tallahassee these days.

John Chase, Palm Harbor