Pubdate: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI) Copyright: 2009 Madison Newspapers, Inc. Contact: http://www.madison.com/wsj/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/506 Author: Joe Usher Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n211.a10.html PRISON INDUSTRY DEPENDS ON DRUG USE Reading a Friday letter from a Boscobel reader about being tough on people who use (and most likely are addicted to) cocaine and heroin, I realized there's a prison in that community. My assumption is there's a vested interest for the people living in this town to make sure their prison stays full. The U.S. has by far the highest rate of incarceration in the world because of this "get tough on drugs" policy. It is obviously in the best interest of anyone whose job is associated with our prison system to keep all sorts of drugs illegal. This includes marijuana, a drug that has been proven to be less harmful to society than alcohol. If we make pot legal, we may save billions on incarceration, as well as increase tax revenues, but some prison employees would probably lose their jobs. There's job security in letting an addict serve their sentence without any real rehabilitation so they return to society as bad or worse than when they went to prison. This basically ensures that they will be back in prison soon. If we treated the disease of addiction like other diseases and stressed treatment, we would have big growth in jobs within the treatment and rehabilitation industry, one that requires education and skills, unlike the prison system. Joe Usher Middleton - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin