MOVING METH INGREDIENTS BEHIND COUNTERS IS BETTER THAN BUILDING PRISONS

Dear Editor:

I'm writing about: "War on meth moves over the counter drugs behind
the counter" (4-06-05).

Keeping the ingredients of meth behind the counter of pharmacies 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 drug 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 is locked
in an American jail or prison.

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

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ