Pubdate: Fri, 14 Nov 2014
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Robert Sharpe

DOING THE MATH ON PROP. 47

As evidenced by the passage of Proposition 47, the people are still 
way ahead of the politicians on drug policy.

The punitive drug war is not the promoter of family values that some 
would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational 
failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency.

Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals 
is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education 
in criminal behavior. Prisons transmit violent habits to nonviolent 
drug offenders who are eventually released with dismal job prospects 
because of criminal records.

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 it is.

Robert Sharpe,

Washington,

The writer is a policy analyst at Common Sense for Drug Policy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom