DRUG TREATMENT MAKES SENSE

EDITOR: In response to the Feb. 1 editorial "Keep the menaces where they
are": North Carolina is not the only state grappling with overcrowded
prisons. Many states facing budget shortfalls are pursuing alternatives to
incarceration for non-violent drug offenders.

Unfortunately, an arrest is oftentimes a necessary prerequisite for
cost-effective drug treatment. Fear of criminal sanctions compels many
problem drug users to suffer in silence. Toning down the zero tolerance
rhetoric would help facilitate rehabilitation.

The option of increased drug treatment alternatives would do more than save
taxpayers money. Public safety is at stake. 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 career criminals 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 would be 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