U.S. DRUG POLICY DEEPLY FLAWED

In response to your July 13 editorial ("Our Views: Youth drug court would
benefit area"), drug courts are a step in the right direction, but an
arrest should not be a necessary prerequisite for drug treatment. Would
alcoholics seek treatment for their illness if doing so were tantamount to
confessing to criminal activity?

Likewise, would putting every incorrigible alcoholic behind bars and
saddling them with criminal records prove cost-effective?

The United States recently earned the dubious distinction of having
the highest incarceration rate in the world, with drug offenses
accounting for the majority of federal incarcerations. This is big
government at its worst. At an average cost of $26,134 per inmate
annually, maintaining the world's largest prison system can hardly be
considered fiscally conservative.

The threat of prison that coerced drug treatment relies upon can
backfire when it's actually put to use. Prisons transmit violent
habits rather than reduce them. Imagine if every alcoholic were thrown
in jail and given a permanent criminal record. How many lives would be
destroyed? How many tax dollars would be wasted turning potentially
productive members of society into hardened criminals?

Robert Sharpe,

Common Sense for Drug Policy,

Washington, D.C.