DOUBLE STANDARD

EDITOR:

The Carter County drug court under consideration is definitely a step in
the right direction, but an arrest should not be a necessary prerequisite
for drug treatment.

Would alcoholics seek help for their illness if doing so were tantamount to
confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would putting every incorrigible
alcoholic behind bars and saddling them with criminal records prove
cost-effective?

The United States recently earned the dubious distinction of having the
highest incarceration rate in the world, with drug offenses accounting for
the majority of federal incarcerations. This is big government at its
worst. At an average cost of $25,071 per inmate annually, maintaining the
world's largest prison system can hardly be considered fiscally conservative.

The threat of prison that coerced treatment relies upon can backfire when
it's actually put to use. Prisons transmit violent habits rather than
reduce them.

Minor drug offenders are eventually released, with dismal job prospects due
to criminal records. Turning recreational drug users into unemployable
ex-cons is a senseless waste of tax dollars.

At present there is a glaring double standard in place. Alcohol and tobacco
are by far the deadliest recreational drugs, yet the government does not go
out of its way to destroy the lives of drinkers and smokers. Imagine if
every alcoholic were thrown in jail and given a permanent criminal record.
How many lives would be destroyed? How many families torn apart? How many
tax dollars would be wasted turning potentially productive members of
society into hardened criminals?

ROBERT SHARPE, M.P.A.,

Program Officer Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.