Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jul 2006
Source: Lawrence Journal-World (KS)
Copyright: 2006 The Lawrence Journal-World
Contact: http://www.ljworld.com/site/submit-letter
Website: http://www.ljworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1075
Author: Rick Frydman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

WAR ON PEOPLE

To the editor:

Three recent articles in your paper really grabbed my attention.

The first was about the poor soul sentenced to 11 years for 
possessing cocaine for the third time. The next article was about the 
guy who also possessed cocaine for the third time, but as he had 
quantity, he was sentenced to life in prison. The third article was 
about cigarettes and how health officials have determined that ONE 
BILLION people will die this century from their legal but lethal 
nicotine addictions.

Now consider for a moment a world where cigarettes were outlawed and 
an individual who didn't kick the habit would go to jail for 11 years 
if they didn't quit smoking after being warned twice. Would you be 
outraged? If a person was caught for a third time with multiple packs 
of cigarettes and was sentenced to life, would you think that too was 
outrageous?

The war on drugs in a misnomer. It is a war on people who use or 
distribute drugs and a war on you the taxpayer who foots the bills 
for such wasteful incarceration (more than $20,000 per year per 
inmate) -- money that could be well spent on non-prison sanctions for 
the offender with lots of money left over to give to our bankrupt 
public schools or to mobilize a real campaign to educate our children 
about the dangers of cigarette smoking so that they won't be one of 
the billion that receive a death sentence this century.

Rick Frydman,

Lawrence
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