U.S. DRUG POLICY IS A 'DISASTER'

Regarding the editorial "Lawmakers lack sense of urgency" (Dec. 12),
criminals aren't the only ones filling up our prisons.

What do you think happens to a parolee who tests positive for marijuana?

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 it's okay for our politicians to use marijuana but the rest of
Americans should be demonized and criminalized for it, right?

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

I don't want my children to have to endure another 30 years of this
disastrous and misguided war that takes from education to build more prisons.

Once we quit criminalizing responsible adults for using marijuana, you
won't have to ask yourself what we need to do about overcrowded prisons.
But drug warriors will have to ask themselves what job skills they have
other than violating the inalienable and constitutional rights of American
citizens.

Scott Russ,

Baton Rouge, La.