Pubdate: Sat, 11 September 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Author: Jerry Epstein Note: The author is president of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Houston NO LONGER LAND OF 'FREE' The current unjust, racist and inhumane application of modern Prohibition -- aside from the personal tragedies involved -- shows how Texans and their children have been made victims of their own failure to protest our legislator's policy decisions. In the past 10 years, Texas has built some 77 new prisons -- with four more on the way -- and only one new four-year college. We waste upward of $1 billion every year to inflict injustice while other states use radically different laws saving their citizens those billions and avoiding some of the injustices, as well. Arizona has decriminalized small-scale possession of all drugs, and Oregon has decriminalized marijuana for 26 years. Our nation imprisoned at a rate of only one per 1,000 for more than a century prior to 1980, and Minnesota continues to imprison at that same rate, while the Texas rate has exploded to over seven per 1,000. While Texas fights to become the No. 1 incarcerator, we rank 48th nationally in mental-health services, and our drug-treatment services have been slashed. Mental-health problems are at the root of a great deal of drug abuse, but we prefer punishment -- after innocent citizens have been made victims -- to prevention. "The land of the free" has become the world's No. 1 prison state. There is no evidence that individual states bucking the trend have any more crime or drug problems than Texas as a result of their decision to invest in the education of their children instead of prison bars. Jerry Epstein, president Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Houston - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D