'UNREFORMED' DRUG LAWS ARE WORKING JUST FINE

To the Editor:

Your June 12 editorial, "Reforming Drug Laws," and Dr. Gene Tinelli's
letter misinform the public. Several statements are a stretch, to say
the least:

"Just about everyone agrees the Rockefeller Drug Laws have been a
failure." Time to back up this unsupported statement with a complete
survey of Onondaga County.

You reported 22,000 state drug offenders are in prison. That's good
news to those of us who know what happens when they roam the streets
committing crimes to raise money for their habits, or providing drugs
to others for easy money.

"Drug addicts need treatment, not punishment," you write. Tinelli says
we should "seduce our fellow citizens into public health clinics."
Both statements assume addicts will commit to getting and staying off
drugs.

"But no public good is served by putting a nonviolent drug addict in
prison for a long time." I beg to differ: 6,000 of them are not in
everybody's neighborhood.

Tinelli says, "We cannot protect free adults from their own choices,
nor should we use the force of law to try." He might get an argument
from "free adults" who become victims of some of these choices.

Lawbreakers need to be accountable for their choices when others are
hurt. Drug addiction is no exception to the force of law being used
when necessary.

Ken Van Riper, Minoa