CHANGE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT IN 'WAR' AGAINST ADDICTION

On Feb. 24, Daytona Beach Police Chief Mike Chitwood, after a large
drug raid in Daytona Beach, was quoted in The News-Journal as
follows: "We're never going to arrest our way out of this problem in
this neighborhood. I can go in here and arrest and arrest and arrest
. You're in a war, and you're never not going to be in a war."

On March 6, Flagler County Sheriff Don Fleming, in a guest column,
wrote, "There is big business in illegal drugs and irresponsible
dissemination of drugs in this country is destroying today's youth.
What can we expect of the youth of tomorrow if we do not stop this
widespread disease of addiction?" Note the operative term "disease."

Sheriff Fleming then made the point that law enforcement needs the
tools to fight the war on drugs, and presumably he was referring to
the tracking system for the sale of prescription drugs that Gov. Rick
Scott wants to repeal. He also reminded us that we need prisons, and
then wandered off into that old worn-out story about the "war on
drugs" that we've been unsuccessfully fighting for 40-plus years. The
same war that Chief Chitwood says we'll always be in, and the same
war that the Drug Enforcement Agency bureaucracy depends on for its livelihood.

It's time to start treating addiction like the disease Sheriff
Fleming says it is, and provide medical treatment to the addicts
instead of locking them up in prisons. Have law enforcement focus on
the suppliers, and have the medical professionals provide treatment
to the users. It would be money better spent and would probably help
us save the youth of tomorrow. And treating addicts is surely less
expensive than warehousing them in prison for years.

BRIAN RIEHLE, Palm Coast