STATE PLAN WOULD INCREASE DRUG ABUSE

The new governor of Georgia has formed a commission to "review
Georgia's tough sentencing law to determine what changes can be made
to protect the public" in order to reduce the cost of Georgia's
prison population by releasing "non-violent" offenders to local
communities. Many of the released are drug offenders.

It was nice to learn that people in prison for drug offenses are
considered "non-violent."

I wonder who decided drug offenders are non-violent? So just where
does such thinking believe these users get their drugs? I suppose
they think that after a hard day's work at a legitimate job, they go
to the corner store and buy their drugs, just like visiting a store
that sells legal alcohol. They buy from a drug cartel, which is
nothing but violent (think Mexico). These non-violent offenders who
are released back into local communities, more than likely have long
histories of drug offenses and will continue their use by buying from
local distributors who are linked to the cartels.

The only way that such a suggestion of releasing non-violet drug
users back into the community might work is with a state-of-the-art
recovery program to rehabilitate users. Since the objective of
releasing prisoners is to save money, lots of luck on funding any
comprehensive program.

The best way to curb prison cost is education and early intervention.
What can we expect if such a release program is adopted? Simple --
more "non-violent" drug users locally buying more "non-violent" drugs
with money obtain by "non-violent" means, such as burglaries, car
jacking, robberies and anyway money can be obtained to continue their
"non-violent" ways.

Bill Bates, Albany