Pubdate: Tue, 03 Sep 2002
Source: Times Union (Albany, NY)
Copyright: 2002 Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation
Contact:  http://www.timesunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/452
Author: Robert Sharpe

TIME TO REVISE TACTICS IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

While New York missed another opportunity to reform the state's draconian 
Rockefeller Drug Laws because of political infighting, states throughout 
the country are pursuing treatment instead of incarceration alternatives 
for nonviolent drug offenders.

Rockefeller's defenders claim the harsh laws fight crime. Make no mistake, 
so-called drug-related crime is invariably prohibition-related. With 
alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer terrorize inner 
cities with drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking 
unregulated bathtub gin.

A Rand Corporation study found that every additional dollar invested in 
substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.46 in societal costs. There is 
far more at stake than tax dollars. The drug war is not the promoter of 
family values that some would have us believe.

Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the 
equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in criminal 
behavior. Turning drug users into unemployable ex-cons is a senseless waste 
of tax dollars. It's time to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin 
treating all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health 
problem that it is.

Robert Sharpe

Program officer Drug Policy Alliance Washington, D.C.
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