PRISON DOESN'T WORK

The gratuitous slam at "drug war pacifists who think treatment is the
answer'' in your editorial "These Guys Were Real Lost Souls'' (Sept. 13)
must have been written by a pacifist in the war against ignorance. Study
after study - academic, government, private - has shown that treating drug
abuse reduces it by up to 60 percent, saves seven times as much money as
enforcing drug laws and cuts crime.

The Bush administration's own National Institute on Drug Abuse finds, "Drug
addiction treatment is cost-effective in reducing drug use and its
associated health and social costs.''

Incarcerating drug abusers hasn't worked, and many of them are being
released because of budget constraints that logically suggest the limited
supply of cells be filled with real criminals.

Jailing a drug abuser takes him off the street for a couple of years.
Treating him takes him off the street for a lifetime.

IRA R. ALLEN, Washington, D.C.

The writer is vice president for public affairs for the Center for the
Advancement of Health.