OFFER DRUG TREATMENT

I don't think anyone is going to argue that Rush Limbaugh would
benefit from a lengthy mandatory-minimum prison sentence for violating
federal drug laws. If drug treatment works for him, why not apply the
same standard to less-famous Americans?

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.

Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals
is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education
in antisocial 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, legal or not, as the public-health problem that
it is. Destroying the futures of people who make unhealthy choices
benefits no one.

Robert Sharpe,

policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, http://www.csdp.org/

Washington, D.C.