SENDING WRONG MESSAGE TO WORLD

I'm writing about your thoughtful editorial: "Tougher meth law strikes
the right balance" (4-04-05).

I agree that 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. Largely because of
their "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 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, AZ