HELP DRUG PROGRAMS BY CHANGING STATUTES

Editor:

This is in regard to your article about funds running thin for the Palmer
Drug Abuse Program (July 17).

As a recovered abuser of alcohol and cocaine, I was sorry to read that this
important program might not receive needed funding. But readers should know
that a well-intentioned treatment program is doomed to failure unless the
drug laws are changed.

Current policies dictate simply being arrested for possession of an illegal
substance could lead one into either incarceration or drug court. The first
is acknowledged as bad policy, and the latter is hampered by this very
fact. Simply being caught in possession does not automatically denote
someone as being a "drug addict" in need of a state-coerced "cure."

Forcing anyone and everyone caught in possession into such a treatment
system causes many who are in legitimate need to have to wait. And the
longer true drug abusers wait, the more their symptoms damage them and
those around them.

The easiest way to fix this would be to end the criminal prohibition
against adults possessing small amounts of marijuana or other drugs. This
would help assure the treatment programs for youth and adults are more
accessible for those with true drug abuse problems.

Even better, it would also reduce the number of otherwise law-abiding
adults who are being given crippling criminal records simply for using
politically incorrect drugs in preference to state-approved alcohol.

Additionally, the huge savings in tax dollars realized by legalizing could
be rechanneled into better as-sisting those who have abuse issues with any
drug, whether it be cocaine, methamphetamine, opiates, alcohol or tobacco.

STEPHEN HEATH

public relations director

Drug Policy Forum of Florida

Clearwater Fla.