IT IS TIME TO DECLARE PEACE IN DRUG WAR

The Greenup County drug court is definitely a step in the right
direction, but an arrest should not be a necessary prerequisite for
drug treatment. Would alcoholics seek treatment 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 drug treatment relies upon can
backfire when it's actually put to use. Prisons transmit violent
habits and values rather than reduce them. Most non-violent drug
offenders are eventually released, with dismal job prospects because
of criminal records. Turning recreational drug users into hardened
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 two deadliest recreational drugs, yet
government does not make it their business to actively destroy the
lives of drinkers and smokers. It's time to declare peace in the
failed drug war and begin treating all substance abuse, legal or
otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

Robert Sharpe,
program officer,
The Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C.