EQUAL JAIL TIME FOR WHITES WOULD END WAR ON DRUGS

The writer is policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy.

In response to Ed Williams' "An unfinished journey" (Aug. 11 Editorial
Notebook):

Ted Shaw, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, is
right about the war on drugs being a war on blacks. Blacks and whites
use drugs at roughly the same rates. If whites were incarcerated for
drug offenses at the same rate as minorities, support for the drug war
would end overnight.

It's worth noting that tobacco use has declined considerably in recent
years. Public education efforts are paying off. Apparently mandatory
minimum prison sentences, civil asset forfeiture, random drug testing
and racial profiling are not necessarily the most cost-effective means
of discouraging unhealthy choices.

Robert Sharpe

Washington, D.C.