ENFORCEMENT OF TOUGH DRUG LAWS IS NEEDED

The drug situation is stigmatizing America's cities, both locally and
nationally. The repeatedly asked question is how do we win the war on
drugs? Education that leads to prevention is integral, especially when
dealing with impressionable, young people. For parents, preventive lessons
begin unequivocally under their own roofs. Clinics must also give addicts a
chance to turn their wretched but hopefully salvageable lives around. With
that said, however, the toughest laws enforced against drug trafficking and
usage will prove to be the only way to quash this illegal, deadly blight on
society.

In the violent wake of crime they incessantly leave behind them, drug
dealers must be held fully accountable and severely punished. Mandatory
drug sentences have to be strictly implemented and enforced. For how long
do we let these criminal thugs continue to disgrace and destroy more
streets, communities, towns and lives? If more prisons have to be
constructed, then so be it.

For drug buyers and users who help support and finance this dirty business,
it might be time for a "three strikes and you're out" approach. Less than
two arrests and convictions should lead to treatment, but any ensuing drug
offense results in mandatory incarceration. This is highly unlikely though
if not impossible. Our judicial system does more bargaining than a native
street vendor. How about coercing illegal drug consumers to visit the
family of a law enforcement officer killed fighting the drug war or a
family who has lost an innocent, young child through some drug-related
drive-by shooting. Let them see for themselves that their tainted money is
paid back in bloodshed and murder.

WAYNE ATKINSON

Fairhaven