LEGALIZING SOME DRUGS IS A BETTER SOLUTION

Mandatory sentencing, under the Rockefeller-era drug laws, removes
from the judges and courts the ability to evaluate on a case-by-case
basis the merits of incarceration. The author of a recent letter
suggested that the current system has resulted in New York streets
that are the "safest in 30 years." Yet later, he tells us that "for
every drug dealer who goes to prison, there is another to take his
place." How then are our streets safer as a result of mandatory
sentencing? The supply of dealers, and, following logically, drugs, is
seemingly limitless. What percentage of our population must be
incarcerated before this reality becomes clear?

I suggest that murder, burglary, robbery and other crimes are largely
the result of money that is involved in drug deals, rather than the
drugs themselves. Greed, or for some, the need to make a living, is
what puts drug dealers back on the corner.

It is time we look seriously at legalization of a variety of illicit
drugs. Only by removing the possibility of tremendous financial gain
will we keep the dealers off the streets.

Mandatory sentencing is not going to clear society of drug use. The
financial and social cost of the war on drugs is far higher than the
return.

ROB BEACH

Grand Island