Pubdate: Tue, 12 Sep 2000
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2000 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Donnie R. Marshall
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1303/a11.html

COLOMBIA PLANS

William Raspberry's Sept. 1 op-ed piece, "Colombia's Drug Problem: Us," 
brings to mind the frustrating debate about whether we should spend the 
nation's drug-control budget on combating drug producers and traffickers or 
reducing the number of drug users. But a strategy that addresses only the 
second part of the equation, as Mr. Raspberry recommends, is doomed to failure.

I also take exception to his claim that mandatory drug sentences have 
"filled our prisons to overflowing with nonviolent offenders." Drug users 
commit crimes--often violent crimes. Last year, 64 percent of adult male 
federal prisoners tested positive for drugs at the time of arrest. In 
Washington, 69 percent tested positive, and of those arrested for violent 
crimes, more than half tested positive. Although we cannot arrest our way 
out of the nation's drug problem, neither can we just educate our way out. 
We need a balanced strategy of prevention, education, law enforcement, 
supply reduction and international cooperation.

Donnie R. Marshall, Administrator, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 
Washington
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D