OVERFLOW

Addicts - Re: "Forced treatment worth a try," Editorial, Oct. 2.

Drug treatment is preferable to incarceration, but an arrest should
not be a prerequisite for rehabilitation.

Would alcoholics seek help for their illness if doing so were
tantamount to confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would
putting every incorrigible alcoholic behind bars and saddling them
with criminal records prove cost-effective?

The threat of prison that coerced treatment relies upon can backfire
when it's actually put to use. Incarcerating non-violent drug
offenders alongside career criminals is the equivalent of providing
them with a taxpayer-funded education in anti-social behaviour.
Imagine if every alcoholic were thrown in prison and given a
permanent criminal record. How many lives would be destroyed? How
many families torn apart? How many tax dollars would be wasted
turning potentially productive members of society into hardened criminals?

Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Va.

Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst with Common Sense for DrugPolicy