FACE DRUG PROBLEM

Wake Forest School of Medicine Professor David Friedman is to be commended
for raising awareness of the failure of legislated morality. If drug
addiction is indeed a physiological condition, criminal records are hardly
ideal health interventions. Would Americans with poor diets, tobacco
smokers and alcoholics benefit from sharing a cell with a violent criminal?
Incarcerating non-violent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is
the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in
anti-social behavior. Instead of wasting scarce resources waging a war on
some drugs, we should be funding cost-effective drug treatment. It's time
to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin treating all substance
abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.