WAR ON DRUGS IS TOP PRIORITY OF POLICE

As a former probation officer, I wish I could say I was surprised by
the recent report on how convicted rapist and accused child-murderer
Terapon Adhahn slipped through the cracks of the criminal justice
system ("Keeping tabs on sex offenders is a daunting task," July 20).

But the cold, hard fact of the matter is that "the war on drugs" is a
much higher priority for police, courts and corrections than is the
monitoring of deviants. If you doubt that fact, compare budgets: about
$70 billion is wasted annually on drug prohibition, but less than a
tenth of that sum is spent overseeing the probationers, parolees and
sex criminals who have been released into the community.

Would Zina Linnik still be alive if marijuana and heroin were taxed
and regulated the same way as whiskey and tobacco? I cannot answer
that question -- no one can. But we know from history that when
alcohol prohibition ended, murders decreased by a third, and the
homicide rate continued to decline for 10 straight years thereafter.

At worst, non-violent drug users commit a vice. Terapon Adhahn and
those like him commit crimes. All our children will be safer when the
law stops mistaking the one for the other.

MATT MCCALLY

Renton