IT'S TIME FOR REFORM OF DRUG LAWS: DECRIMINALIZE MARIJUANA

Editor:

There is no prison reform or drug court that will alleviate our prison
problems until we reform our drug laws.

Criminals aren't the only ones filling up our prisons. What do you think
happens to a parolee that tests positive for marijuana or is caught
possessing even a tiny amount of marijuana? Or a second or third time
simple possession offender? He or she will be sent back to prison, and
taxpayers will be paying for their room and board.

Why should we send these people back to jail for doing something that
presidents and many other politicians have admitted to doing?

I guess its ok for our politicians to use marijuana, but the rest of
Americans should be demonized and criminalized for it, right?

America had better wake up soon and stop hypocritically prosecuting its
citizens in the name of the drug war. Eighty years of this domestic policy
disaster are quite enough.

I don't want my children to have to endure another 80 years of this
disastrous and misguided war that takes money from education to build more
prisons.

Once we quit criminalizing responsible adults for using substances other
than alcohol or tobacco, you won't have to ask yourself what we need to do
about overcrowded prisons.

Drug courts are not the answer. These courts will continue to be overrun,
because what we've done is criminalize millions of Americans for something
no different than possessing alcohol or tobacco.

Guess what would happen if we criminalized either of those two substances.
We would arrest citizens for having beer or cigarettes in their homes or
vehicles and would order them to drug court, regardless of whether they
committed any real crime.

How much longer will we suffer before Americans realize this simple truth?

Scott Russ

Baton Rouge, La.

(the state with the most incarcerations, thanks to drug laws)