SOUND INITIATIVE

To the editor:

State Representative Chris Redfern criticized the ballot initiative to
reform the drug laws (9/4), vigorously defending the status quo.

But it's not as if a stream of drug addicts enter the current penal system,
to emerge at the other end "rehabilitated." If the system had worked, there
would be no need for the ballot initiative.

The initiative takes steps to remedy the handiwork of politicians like
Redfern, who have made a mess of things. Even if judges can send drug
addicts to jail for 18 months under current law, has that reduced the
number of addicts? I can understand Redfern's desire to send people to jail
as punishment, but let's not add insult to injury that it's for their own
good, as he insinuates. The ballot initiative is sound, and Ohio will
benefit from its enactment.

Harry D. Fisher

Woodland Hills, Calif.