TREAT DRUG ABUSE AS PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE

Regarding David Smith's May 20 essay "Send drug addicts to treatment - not
prison":

The burden imposed on New York taxpayers by the Rockefeller drug laws grows
each year. While Albany debates reform, states throughout the country have
introduced alternatives to incarceration. The drug war is not the promoter
of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are
at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Not
only do the children lose out, but society as a whole does, too.

Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the
equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in criminal
behavior. Turning drug users into unemployable ex-cons is a senseless waste
of tax dollars. It's time to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin
treating all substance abuse as the public health problem it is.

Destroying the futures and families of citizens who make unhealthy choices
doesn't benefit anyone.

ROBERT SHARPE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Sharpe is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy