DRUG TREATMENT, NOT JAIL TIME

Florida Today's Feb. 24 editorial was right on target. I don't think anyone
is going to argue that Noelle Bush or Florida is best served by giving her
the maximum penalty of five years in prison for prescription fraud.

Fear of criminal sanctions compels many problem drug users to suffer in
silence. Toning down the tough-on-drugs rhetoric would encourage the type
of honest discussion necessary to facilitate cost-effective drug treatment.

The option of treatment instead of incarceration would do more than save
taxpayers' money. Prisons transmit violent habits and values rather than
reduce them. Most non-violent drug offenders eventually are released, with
dismal job prospects due to criminal records. Turning recreational drug
users into career criminals is a senseless waste of tax dollars.

There is a glaring double standard in place. Alcohol and tobacco by far are
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 into 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, Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance, Washington, D.C.

NO TAX DOLLARS FOR DRUG REHAB

A recent editorial suggested new tactics for drug reform. Here's one. I am
a taxpayer and I do not support drug programs such as Florida Today
suggests and such as those apparently being administered by Gov. Jeb Bush
and others.

The way to fight drug misuse is to get rid of the drugs and those who
market them. I did not open the mouths of those who took drugs. I did not
force them to take drugs. Yet Florida Today and the various governments
involved want me to pay for the programs. I won't.

Parents should pay, exclusively, for permitting their children to get into
a position of taking drugs to the point of addiction.

The answer is to enforce the laws we have and increase the punishment for
those who use and sell drugs. Give law enforcement and the legal system the
power to do away with this foolishness that continues to cost taxpayers.

Or is the payoff at the highest levels of government too high for anyone to
really care?

Jerry Jenkins, Melbourne