Pubdate: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2000 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: http://www.sunspot.net/ Forum: http://www.sunspot.net/cgi-bin/ultbb/Ultimate.cgi?actionintro Author: Dorsey Tipton JUDICIAL SYSTEM CAN'T HANDLE EFFECTS OF "ZERO TOLERANCE'" Mayor Martin O'Malley is an impractical optimist. Most of our crime is drug-related, and there aren't enough police officers to enforce "zero tolerance." The judicial system is snowed under now. We'll never have enough jails to hold all the offenders. And our parole system is obviously incapable of handling the existing overload. But if we take the profits out of drugs, the problem will wither on the vine. We should treat drug addiction as a disease instead of as a crime and sell addicts the drugs they need, at cost, through government dispensaries. Such a program would not produce the instantaneous results Mr. O'Malley expects, but in 20 years it would cause a marked improvement. And can anyone realistically say the current approaches to controlling drugs and crime have had much success in the past 20 years? Dorsey Tipton Baltimore - --- MAP posted-by: Allan Wilkinson