DRUG POLICIES ARE NOT WORKING

Dear Editor: I'm writing about: "Meth problem could make buying
decongestant more difficult" (4-10-05). Keeping the ingredients of meth
behind the counter is certainly a lot better solution than the previous
non-solution 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. Mostly because of their "tough on
drugs" policies, Oklahoma became the fourth-highest state for incarcerations.

Mostly 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 U. S. have fewer than 5 percents of the
world's population, we have more than 25 percent of the world's prisoners.

In other words, one out of every four prisoners in the world in locked in
an American jail or prison.

What message does this send to the rest of the world?

Kirk Muse, Mesa, Ariz.