Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jul 2005 Source: Brownsville Herald, The (TX) Copyright: 2005 The Brownsville Herald Contact: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/contact.php Website: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1402 Author: Stephen Heath HELP DRUG PROGRAMS BY CHANGING STATUTES Editor: This is in regard to your article about funds running thin for the Palmer Drug Abuse Program (July 17). As a recovered abuser of alcohol and cocaine, I was sorry to read that this important program might not receive needed funding. But readers should know that a well-intentioned treatment program is doomed to failure unless the drug laws are changed. Current policies dictate simply being arrested for possession of an illegal substance could lead one into either incarceration or drug court. The first is acknowledged as bad policy, and the latter is hampered by this very fact. Simply being caught in possession does not automatically denote someone as being a "drug addict" in need of a state-coerced "cure." Forcing anyone and everyone caught in possession into such a treatment system causes many who are in legitimate need to have to wait. And the longer true drug abusers wait, the more their symptoms damage them and those around them. The easiest way to fix this would be to end the criminal prohibition against adults possessing small amounts of marijuana or other drugs. This would help assure the treatment programs for youth and adults are more accessible for those with true drug abuse problems. Even better, it would also reduce the number of otherwise law-abiding adults who are being given crippling criminal records simply for using politically incorrect drugs in preference to state-approved alcohol. Additionally, the huge savings in tax dollars realized by legalizing could be rechanneled into better as-sisting those who have abuse issues with any drug, whether it be cocaine, methamphetamine, opiates, alcohol or tobacco. STEPHEN HEATH public relations director Drug Policy Forum of Florida Clearwater Fla. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom