Pubdate: Sun, 03 Dec 2000
Date: 12/03/2000
Source: Ogdensburg Journal/Advance News (NY)
Author: Kelli Rentsch
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1796.a05.html

To The Editor:

I absolutely agree with Charles Gardner the drug war is a failure.
Offenders of nonviolent crimes don't need prison, they need
rehabilitation health care and something this area doesn't
offer...gainful employment.

Ask anyone who has been in prison. It's a violent place with drugs
galore.

Prison doesn't rehabilitate, it turns average people into cons and
skilled criminals.

The Rockefeller drug laws need heavy duty reform.  They are as archaic
as Nancy Reagan's ridiculous "Just say No" campaign, which was
laughable to say the least when we all know she needed a trip to the
Betty Ford Clinic for her pill popping zombie like state.

The United States needs to take a look at how other countries with low
crime rates approach nonviolent crimes, like Holland.  As long as
there is prohibition, there will be a black market.  Drugs will never
go away, since man has evolved he has looked for an altered state of
mind, it's just human nature.

We don't need more prisons, our state is filled with too many now,
filled mostly with drug offenders.  We need a society that thinks and
faces the facts.

Kelli Rentsch,
Potsdam. N.Y.