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.,
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake