Pubdate: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 Source: Denver Post (CO) Copyright: 2000 The Denver Post Contact: 1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202 Fax: (303) 820.1502 Website: http://www.denverpost.com/ Forum: http://www.denverpost.com/voice/voice.htm Author: Patrick L. Lilly FREE RIDE IS OVER Congratulations to The Post for endorsing a reconsideration of drug-possession sentencing ( "Revisiting drug laws," Jan. 17 editorial). It's encouraging that you now realize that the drug war against the American people is a "travesty" - not to mention a disgrace. My only caveat is with your caveat - you withhold support for a prison moratorium, saying that stopping expansion of the runaway prison industry would cause more inhumane treatment. I'm as concerned about the barbaric treatment of prisoners as anyone. But you've got the arrow of causality reversed. The government will only stop abusing millions of non-criminal Americans who ingest currently banned drugs when we stop making it possible to lock up ever-increasing numbers of people in ever-increasing numbers of prisons. To use the currently trendy phrase, we need to "send a message" to the operators of the drug war and the prison industry that their free ride is over. As long as they have lots of prison cells, they will keep on rounding up more and more people to put in them. PATRICK L. LILLY Cheyenne Canon - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk