Pubdate: Thu, 28 May 2015 Source: Boston Globe (MA) Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340 Website: http://bostonglobe.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52 Author: Lisa Newman-Polk CRIMINALIZING ADDICTION IS NOT THE ANSWER RE "Mobilized against a hometown scourge" by Brian MacQuarrie (Page A1, May 17): We need to face the evidence - criminalizing addiction is not the answer. As an attorney and licensed certified social worker, I have represented and treated countless individuals addicted to opiates and other substances. I have seen firsthand that efforts to curb opiate addiction through law enforcement and the criminal justice system do not work. When a probation officer's job includes watching probationers urinate, we have to question whether something is terribly wrong with our system. Instead of spending countless tax dollars investigating, arresting, prosecuting, incarcerating, and probating individuals on drug crimes, we should invest our money in building treatment facilities in every town - facilities where people can walk in off the street to be detoxed 24 hours a day and provided with long-term residential programming and outpatient services, regardless of their insurance or ability to pay. Lisa Newman-Polk Groton - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom