AMERICA'S APPROACH TO ILLEGAL DRUGS SIMPLY DOESN'T WORK

Dear Editor: District Attorney Brian Blanchard, in his column "Drug crimes
alone not filling county jail," uses racial data collected by the Wisconsin
Sentencing Commission at www.wsc.wi.gov. I decided to check the info.

In "TIS 2 Prison Sentences: Tracking The Most Common Offenses," dated Oct.
15, 2004, the commission tracked the charges that most often resulted in
prison time statewide. As the report states: "Drug offenses continue to
dominate the list." In fact, since 1999, "possession with intent to deliver
under 5 grams of cocaine" has been so disproportionately the most common
cause of a prison sentence that the commission divided it into two
categories by weight: under 1 gram, and 1-5 grams. So what was once the most
frequent offense is now still No. 1 but also No. 4.

For the top 20 offenses that result in prison, drug offenses were Nos.
1, 4, 10, 14, 16 and 18. Marijuana possession with intent to
distribute under 200 grams was 10th, with a quarter of all those
charged going to prison and simple possession of marijuana was 16th,
with 24 percent going up the creek.

Clearly Mr. Blanchard was making his point about Dane County. I could
find no info to support or refute his numbers. My point in writing
this letter was to keep the issue in perspective: Dane County is a
progressive city with a relatively moderate drug approach but, as
such, it is an island in the sea of drug war-related harms.

Such harms are not confined to the number of Americans condemned to
the drug war gulag. This prohibition has made the drug problem much
worse through a burgeoning black market. It treats sales to children
about the same as to adults. It has degraded our respect for law
enforcement as police are ordered to knock down our doors, collect our
body fluids, and seize our property. And "treatment on demand" is just
another broken Clinton promise. So-called "drug courts" don't work.

The United States now imprisons a higher percentage of its own people
than any country on earth, including Iraq under Saddam Hussein. It
can't go on. Look to the way we handle cigarettes. That is the way we
should head, while completely medicalizing addiction. America is
better than this drug war waged on her own people. Dane County could
help to lead us out of the morass.

Dave Michon

Eau Claire