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OPINION/LETTERS
Drug War
Treatment speaker's mom, or jail?
I found the
article about Iowa House Speaker Ron Corbett's mother ("A
Painful Lesson on Peril of Drugs," Feb. 20) very illuminating considering a bill
pending in the House Judiciary Committee (H.F. 2060) to increase the penalty for simple
possession of crack cocaine and other illegal drugs to a Class D felony.
For Representative Corbett's mother to develop
the severity of addiction that she did (having to declare bankruptcy as a result), she
must have possessed crack cocaine hundreds, if not thousands, of times. And yet
Representative Corbett said, "We need to help those that are addicted to seek
treatment."
What does Corbett mean?
This situation clearly shows the hypocrisy and
absurdity of our current drug laws. There are people serving long prison sentences
for possessing less crack cocaine than Rob Corbett's mother had. She admits to being
a habitual lawbreaker , and yet no one is suggesting (and rightly so) that she go to jail.
Nothing could better
illustrate the victimless nature of drug possession and abuse than this case. The
victim is the drug abuser. We should be figuring out alternatives to putting drug
abusers in prison. These people need a doctor, not a policeman.
-- Carl E. Olsen,
1116 E. Seneca Ave.,
Des Moines.
I'm glad that
Ron Corbett's mother kicked her crack-cocaine habit and that her son loves and forgives
her. I'm glad, too, that she didn't end up in prison for possession or distribution
of drugs. As Corbett says, what happened to his mother could happen to anyone.
Why, then, does he draw the hard line between
addicts and those who prey on them? Addicts deserve treatment; preyers deserve
punishment. There is absolutely no evidence that putting people in prison removes
dangerous drugs from our homes and streets. We need to try something else, and
preferably something that will help us all to live together and not to scapegoat any
segment of our society.
-- Deborah Fink,
222 S. Russell, Ames.
Ron Corbett, the speaker of
the Iowa House
The Des Moines Register
Sunday, March 1, 1998, Page 7AA.
letters@news.dmreg.com
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