Pubdate: Wed, 03 Jan 2001
Source: Reno Gazette-Journal (NV)
Copyright: 2001 Reno Gazette-Journal
Contact:  http://www.rgj.com/
Author: Paul C. Gorman

TREATMENT, NOT PRISON FOR MARIJUANA USE

In response to Michael Henderson's article and the Reno 
Gazette-Journal's editorial of Dec. 12, I can only laugh at Washoe 
District Attorney Dick Gammick's reaction to the Nevada Supreme Court 
commission's suggestion of reduced penalties for marijuana possession.

Incarcerating any drug user in prison is draconian at best and a 
complete waste of monies. Instead of pushing the drug 
user/addict/offenders through the proverbial revolving door of jails 
and prisons, we should steer them toward the help they obviously 
need. Either that or simply legalize currently illegal drugs and 
spend the money saved on making treatment available to those who want 
it. In the 1950s, the American Medical Association concluded that 
addiction to any mind-altering substance is a disease. As far as I 
know, other diseases are treated by by doctors and hospitals.

According to Gammick, marijuana is the "gateway to other drugs," and 
judges throughout Nevada concur that drugs are involved in 
approximately 50 percent of criminal cases, so let's do the obvious: 
Treat the drug user, save money and reduce crime in one easy lesson.

Addiction is a disease of relapse interspersed with periods of 
sobriety. Simply using the threat of incarceration and/or actual 
incarceration will achieve nothing except produce unhappy, angry and 
of course still-addicted parolees.

- -Paul C. Gorman, Reno
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