IT'S TIME TO DECLARE PEACE IN NATION'S FAILED WAR ON DRUGS

Re: "Huge news in War on Drugs," Leonard Pitts Jr.'s column July 31
in The Times.

Support for the drug war would end overnight if whites were
incarcerated for drug offenses at the same rate as minorities. And
racially disproportionate incarceration rates are not the only cause for alarm.

Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness,
addiction and delinquency. Incarcerating non-violent drug offenders
with hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a
taxpayer-funded education in anti-social behavior.

It's time to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin treating
all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem
it is. Thanks to public education efforts, legal tobacco use has
steadily declined, without any need to criminalize smokers.

Mandatory minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random
drug testing and racial profiling are not the most cost-effective
means of discouraging unhealthy choices.

- - Robert Sharpe

Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Arlington, Va.