DRUG CONVICTIONS ADD UNDUE BURDEN TO JAILS

Re: "New county jail is costly - but cheaper than the alternative" (TNT, 10-2).

You write: "But the jail has to open. The alternative - an increasingly
toothless criminal justice system - would be far more costly than those
1,008 beds."

Try thinking outside the box. The time is long since overdue to remove drug
use and drug abuse problems from the criminal justice system. If our state
and federal governments were smart enough to license, regulate and tax the
production and sale of marijuana, we wouldn't need a state tax on income.
We might even be able to afford to treat alcohol and other addicts medically.

Dennis S. Rybicki

Tacoma