Pubdate: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 Source: Tomahawk, The (Mountain City, TN) Copyright: 2005 The Tomahawk Contact: http://www.thetomahawk.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1977 Author: Kirk Muse Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n576.a06.html MOVING METH INGREDIENTS BEHIND COUNTERS IS BETTER THAN BUILDING PRISONS Dear Editor: I'm writing about: "War on meth moves over the counter drugs behind the counter" (4-06-05). Keeping the ingredients of meth behind the counter of pharmacies is certainly a lot better solution than the previous non-solution of building more and bigger prisons. Oklahoma learned the hard way that the so-called "tough on drugs" policies don't work and they are very expensive. Mostly because of their "tough on drugs" policies, Oklahoma became the fourth highest state for incarcerations. Mostly because of our war on drug policies, the United States has been transformed into the most incarcerated nation in the history of human civilization. Even though we in the U. S. have fewer than 5 percents of the world's population, we have more than 25 percent of the world's prisoners. In other words, one out of every four prisoners in the world is locked in an American jail or prison. What message does this send to the rest of the world? Kirk Muse Mesa, AZ - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin