Pubdate: Sun, 10 Mar 2002
Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI)
Section: Opinion/Letters
Copyright: 2002 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact:  http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/195
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n387/a01.html

COERCED TREATMENT WOULD BE INAPPROPRIATE

Regarding your March 5 editorial, "Senate makes progress toward drug 
treatment": While I agree that drug treatment is preferable to 
incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders, coerced treatment has the 
potential to turn the drug war into a modern-day version of the Spanish 
Inquisition. The Bush administration is currently pushing "compassionate 
coercion" for users of certain drugs. Coerced treatment does not 
distinguish between occasional use and chronic abuse. Given that only users 
of politically incorrect drugs are threatened with jail, the nation's 
millions of marijuana smokers are the most likely target of Bush's 
"compassion." Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but 
arrests and forced treatment are hardly appropriate health interventions. 
Diet is the No. 1 determinant of health outcomes.

Do we really want big government monitoring everything that goes into our 
bodies?

And if it is the proper role of government to punish citizens for unhealthy 
choices, why target marijuana?

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, 
nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco.

Unfortunately, marijuana continues to represent the counterculture to 
reactionaries intent on legislating their version of morality.

The United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world, in 
large part due to the war on some drugs.

This country cannot afford to continue subsidizing the prejudices of 
culture warriors to the tune of $50 billion annually.

Robert Sharpe

Program officer, Drug Policy Alliance

Washington, D.C.
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