LEGALIZING DRUGS CARRIES HEAVY PRICE IN SOCIETY

P. O'Rouke's letter questions the reasonableness of spending state
revenues to build new prison capacity (Oct. 2). He advocates changing
the laws of Florida to legalize drug use so we can forgo the expense
of law enforcement, prosecution, defense, judicial involvement and
incarceration of those convicted of drug offenses, which certainly
occurs on many occasions.

He says drugs should be taxed and sold like alcohol, thus not only
reducing these expenses, but also producing revenue to use for such
worthy needs as education.

This all sounds nice, but before anyone buys into this thinking, one
must realize that to do so carries an enormous price that the
``legalizers'' never mention when they write such letters.

If by legalizing drugs our society were to send the message that it is
``OK'' to use addictive drugs, drug use would certainly escalate,
producing many more addicts.

This would produce an increase of deaths on the highway, overdose
deaths, breakdowns of the family unit, more job-related injuries (and
subsequent increases in workers' compensation premiums) and a gigantic
increase in the cost of treatment for those trying to overcome their
addiction.

These and other ``ripple effect'' consequences would certainly cost
our society a lot more financially than the present expense of the
criminal justice process.

Additionally, we would have the personal impact that comes with the
increased breakup of families, plus the impact on families of victims
of road deaths - all of which can't be measured in terms of dollars.

Where am I coming from? I retired in January after serving as a
circuit judge for 21 years, the last 10 of which I presided full time
over a very large drug court.

Thousands of people came before me who had made bad choices for which
they were now paying the price by being an addict. The great majority
were desperate for help to overcome their addiction. Thousands
received help from the treatment we required them to attend, and they
frequently came back before the court, thanking the system in tears of
joy for the help they had received.

For those who refused to seriously address their addiction, we were
able to remove them from society by sentencing them to prison.

Thus, for the addicts who want to overcome their addiction, we must
have treatment programs. For the defiant defendants, we must always
have an adequate supply of prison beds.

Virtually everyone in the system who deals with these defendants -
including the defendants themselves - agree that the legalization of
drugs would be the worst possible ``solution'' our society could
choose to deal with this difficult issue.

But that is what O'Rourke proposes. Our system isn't perfect, and we
must look for better ways to deal with addicted defendants. But surely
we can't adopt a ``cure that's worse than the illness.''

Donald C. Evans is a retired Hillsborough County drug court judge and is an
adjunct professor at the Florida Mental Health Institute at the University
of South Florida.

Tampa