TIME TO PUT MONEY INTO TREATMENT PLAN

A recent article quoted Sheriff Gary telling our County Commissioners that
"methamphetamine related crime is the reason for the large number of people
in jail." Daily police blotters show the majority of these "crimes" is
possession or sales of the substance. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to
figure out that reducing the number of methamphetamine addicts will lower
the number of inmates.

Unfortunately, though, $98,000 of our tax dollars is going to be given to
someone to figure out why our jail population is growing faster than our
general population. Three times our per capita annual income is going to be
spent on something that the gentleman in charge of our jails has already
revealed! Again, it does not take a rocket scientist to recognize this
money should be used in a more cost-effective manner.

Instead of adding to what is already the highest incarceration rate in the
world, we should be funding cost-effective drug treatment. Drug prohibition
finances organized crime at home and terrorism abroad, which is then used
to justify increased drug war spending. It's time to end this madness and
instead treat all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health
problem it is.

Jodie Harrison, Pottsboro