Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jan 2005 Source: Pacific Daily News (US GU) Copyright: 2005 Pacific Daily News Contact: http://www.guampdn.com/customerservice/contactus.html Website: http://www.guampdn.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1122 Author: Robert Sharpe Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n096/a06.html DRUG COURT A GOOD START, BUT SYSTEM NEEDS IMPROVEMENT The Superior Court of Guam's Adult Drug Court is definitely a step in the right direction. For non-violent offenders with chronic substance abuse problems, drug treatment is a cost-effective alternative to incarceration. Unfortunately, drug courts are being misused for political purposes. Record numbers of U.S. citizens arrested for marijuana possession have been forced into treatment by the criminal justice system. The resulting distortion of treatment statistics is used by drug czar John Walters to make the claim that marijuana is "addictive." Zero-tolerance drug laws do not distinguish between occasional use and chronic abuse. The coercion of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis into taxpayer-funded treatment centers says a lot about U.S. government priorities, but absolutely nothing about the relative harms of marijuana. For an objective take on marijuana, look to Canada. In the words of Sen. Pierre Claude Nolin, "Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that cannabis is substantially less harmful than alcohol and should be treated not as a criminal issue but as a social and public health issue." ROBERT SHARPE, MPA policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake