SCARE TACTICS

Dear Editor,

You may have seen the TV ads against issue 1, ask yourself, are the ads
refuting the statistics that prove treatment works? Are they providing you
with any evidence at all that prison works better than treatment? Are they
demonstrating how much less jail costs than treatment?

The answer of course is "no, they're not."

What they are doing is trying to scare people into believing that if state
issue 1 passes, our communities will start giving licenses to drug addicted
school bus drivers, brain surgeons and airline pilots; Never mind the
screening processes that already exists to protect the public from active
substance abusers - a fact overlooked by opponents of issue 1 - they want
you to be afraid of change, not to think about the benefits it will generate.

Drug addiction is a disease, no different than alcoholism, but they way we
have chosen to deal with drug addiction in the past is to simply toss drug
addicts in jail. That process has not reduced drug use nor has it
contributed to a reduction in crime rates. It has created an environment
where petty criminals are turned into hardened criminals, who are then
returned to our streets, without addressing the underlying issue of drug
addiction.

In the last decade, thanks to reforms in the court system, which didn't
come easy, drug courts were formed in a few counties throughout Ohio.
Recognizing that treatment was far more effective than incarceration in
reducing both drug addiction and the crimes associated with it, the program
grew to some 50 counties, until Governor Taft began cutting state funding
to treatment centers soon after he took office. Since then the growth of
drug courts has remained stagnant and the number of treatment centers has
declined.

The experimental stage of drug courts is complete, they've proven to be a
resounding success, even according to the standards set by ardent drug
warriors. Now Ohioans have a chance to move that system to the forefront of
the modern criminal justice system and require that all non-violent drug
offenders be given the opportunity to help themselves with the help of the
communities they live in, and that they be given a chance to become
productive members of society again.

Treatment offers that chance that every human being deserves. We owe it to
ourselves, our communities and our children, to take every opportunity to
reclaim humanity from the grip of addiction.

Jim White

Oregon