Prisons and Drug Abusers

Your editorial, while correctly pointing to substance abuse as the primary cause for our overcrowded jails and prisons, doesn’t go far enough in focusing on solutions. Building more jails and expanding treatment programs should be important components of any anti-drug strategy; however, in the long run, prevention through education absolutely must be the spearhead of our united efforts.

We must guarantee that all our youngsters are “inoculated” through an infusion of knowledge of the dangers of substance abuse when they are most susceptible to that information. Programs where schoolteachers and law enforcement officers join to build self-esteem, coping skills, as well as accurate information about drug use, must be expanded throughout our county and nation.

Although programs such as our department’s Substance Abuse and Narcotics Education (SANE) and the Los Angeles Police Department’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) are only a few years old, they offer the best hope for reducing the appetite or demand for drugs and alcohol.

The more the media can call the attention of their readers and viewers to this simple truth, the faster teachers, cops, parents and taxpayers and everyone else who has a stake in this country’s future can stop reacting to this problem and start preventing it.

SHERIFF SHERMAN BLOCK

Los Angeles County