ADDICTS NEED TREATMENT, NOT JAIL

I attended the meetings and listened to the rhetoric of fear about the "ice
epidemic" and cannot help but wonder about what the legislative agenda will be
when the dust settles for the 2004 sessions. I hope that "get tough"
legislation is not the only thing that comes from this.

Locking up drug addicts by itself does not solve the drug problem. Treatment
and prevention strategies are where money is desperately needed. You can lock
them up and when they're released, these people are still drug addicted, only
now they're better criminals because they've gone to criminal "graduate"
school.

Also, don't make the mistake that the drug problem in this state is only ice.
Alcohol and tobacco still kill more people than all other drugs combined!

Dave Endo

Waipahu