Pubdate: Wed, 17 Jul 2002
Source: Gadsden Times, The (AL)
Copyright: 2002 The Gadsden Times
Contact:  http://www.gadsdentimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1203
Author: Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

FACE DRUG PROBLEM

Wake Forest School of Medicine Professor David Friedman is to be commended 
for raising awareness of the failure of legislated morality. If drug 
addiction is indeed a physiological condition, criminal records are hardly 
ideal health interventions. Would Americans with poor diets, tobacco 
smokers and alcoholics benefit from sharing a cell with a violent criminal? 
Incarcerating non-violent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is 
the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in 
anti-social behavior. Instead of wasting scarce resources waging a war on 
some drugs, we should be funding cost-effective drug treatment. It's time 
to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin treating all substance 
abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health problem it is.

Robert Sharpe, M.P.A.

Program Officer

Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.
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