Pubdate: Thu, 17 May 2001 Source: Martha's Vineyard Times (MA) Copyright: 2001 Martha's Vineyard Times Contact: http://www.mvtimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1166 Author: Robert Sharpe Note: Robert's published letters have passed the 250 milestone. See: http://www.mapinc.org/writers/Robert+Sharpe PEACE IN THE DRUG WAR To the Editor: In his letter to the editor published on May 3, Sheldon Baron suggests that rampant addiction is a crisis on Martha's Vineyard. The problem is compounded by the zero tolerance approach to drugs. Would alcoholics seek treatment if doing so were tantamount to confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would putting every incorrigible alcoholic behind bars and saddling them with criminal records prove cost-effective? While voluntary drug treatment continues to be underfunded, policy makers in Washington are touting drug courts as a means of winning the drug war. However, the threat of prison that coerced treatment relies upon can backfire when it's actually put to use. Prisons transmit violent habits and values rather than reduce them. Most drug offenders are eventually released, with dismal job prospects due to criminal records. Turning nonviolent drug offenders into hardened criminals is a senseless waste of tax dollars. The vast majority of illicit drug users hold jobs. Zero tolerance drug laws do not distinguish between occasional drug use and chronic abuse. Politically popular mandatory minimums have turned many a taxpaying recreational drug user into a long-term tax burden. It's time to declare peace in the failed drug war and start treating all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is. Driving drug use underground benefits no one save opportunistic "tough on drugs" politicians. Robert Sharpe, Program Officer, Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C., - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake