A TALE OF TWO CITIES AND THEIR CRACK USE

Regarding your editorial "Race
and the Drug Laws" (Aug. 6): What's interesting about the drop in
violence associated with crack cocaine is the irrelevance of drug
enforcement. During the peak of the 1980s crack epidemic, New York
City applied the zero-tolerance approach. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C.
Mayor Marion Barry was actively smoking crack and the nation's capital
had the highest per capita murder rate in the country.

Despite very different leadership and law enforcement, crack use
declined in both cities simultaneously. This parallel decline occurred
when the younger generation saw firsthand what crack was doing to
their older peers and decided for themselves that crack was bad news.
Adding to what is already the highest incarceration rate in the world
is not the answer to America's drug problem. Diverting resources away
from prisons into cost-effective, substance-abuse treatment would save
both tax dollars and lives.

Robert Sharpe

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington