DRUGS A MONEY ISSUE

LETTER writer Bob Dougherty's contention that locking up every drug user
would end drug trafficking has one fatal flaw (The Examiner, March 21). Who
will pay the hundreds of billions of dollars for police, courts and prisons
to lock up the druggies?

It costs around $30,000 per year to incarcerate each prisoner and
California already spends more than $1,022,465,000 every year to
incarcerate the 45,455 drug offenders doing time.

If Mr. Dougherty's idea is put into practice, we'll have to imprison
hundreds of thousands of drug users who are now gainfully employed. If only
200,000 drug users (a low estimate) were jailed the taxpayer burden would
increase by over $7 million per year.

Besides the considerable tax hike necessary to fund this total war on
drugs, such enormous prison expenses would require severe cuts in every
other area of government service. Schools would be bankrupted, public
hospitals would be closed and genuine police protection would evaporate.

Redford Givens

The City