Pubdate: Mon, 30 Aug 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Frances Burford

SWAP CRIMINAL FOR MEDICAL

With the leading contender in our next presidential election widely
suspected of having used cocaine when he was young and our sitting president
having confessed that he puffed on marijuana when he was young, it's getting
a bit silly to tell our children that "using drugs will ruin your life."
It's also harder to justify imprisoning poor and minority youth for 10 or 15
years for committing the same crime these white, privileged men committed
without serving even one day. The abuse of drugs -- whether bought at a drug
or liquor store or on the street -- has dire social consequences and can
kill. But the billions the United States spends on the "drug war" each year
isn't solving the problem. It's time to re-evaluate our current drug
policies; time to trade in our criminal approach to the drug problem for a
medical model.

Frances Burford, Houston

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