DRUG USERS DUCK RESPONSIBILITY

This week we read a letter from a gentleman stating that treatment
programs for drug abusers are more important in the war on drugs than
is jail time for those addicted to drugs. At least that's the
summation that I gathered. It got me thinking. I'm 33. When in
America's history did everyone's emotional and psychological
well-being - i.e., their feelings and emotions - take precedence over
keeping the federal and state laws? Isn't that what it comes down to?
Isn't it all really about personal responsibility? Isn't it just a
choice between either obeying or disobeying, and the consequences for
it?

I know, I know. I'm too black and white. I'm not taking into account
that somebody's daddy did them wrong, or that somebody was neglected,
yadda, yadda, yadda.

As a matter of fact, I really like driving my car through the
Shadybrook school zone at 7:35 in the morning at 40 mph (no editorial
comment there) because when I was a little kid my parents never let me
drive the bumper cars by myself, so I shouldn't have to pay that
stupid traffic ticket because I missed out on something! Oh, boo hoo.

This line of reasoning really produces lovely children in the home,
too, when the minds of people of my age group were somehow infiltrated
with the reasoning that their children's little feelings being hurt
were more important then their subtle disobedience. I love having to
restate myself three times for them to do what I asked them to do the
first time. I also love it when parents institute the counting system:
1 ... 2 ... 3! Viola!

Ummm-hmmmm. I'm convinced. People who break the law need help, they
don't need consequences for willfully breaking the law. There's a
deep, psychological reason they became addicted to drugs: Drugs are
addictive.

Nancy Le,
Ladford Lane