PREVENTION BETTER THAN INCARCERATION

I'm writing about: "Bill would put cold medicines behind the counter"
(The Gazette, Jan. 17).

Keeping the ingredients of meth behind the counter is certainly a lot
better solution than the previous nonsolution of building more and
bigger prisons.

Oklahoma learned the hard way that the so-called "tough on drugs"
policies don't work and they are very expensive. Largely because of
its "tough on drugs" policies, Oklahoma became the fourth-highest
state for incarcerations.

Largely because of our war on drugs policies, the United States has
been transformed into the most incarcerated nation in the history of
human civilization. Even though we in the United States have fewer
than 5 percent of the world's population, we have more than 25
percent of the world's prisoners.

In other words, one of four prisoners in the world is locked in an
American jail or prison. What message does this send to the rest of the world?

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.