Drug-War Mentality Busts Prop. 36 Mandate

Re “Prop. 36 Eligibility Debated in Courts,” July 24: As a criminal defense attorney, I find it truly astounding that various prosecuting attorneys around the state, including our local district attorney’s and city attorney’s offices, are doing their utmost to prevent deserving drug addicts from receiving treatment under the precepts of Prop. 36. Prop. 36 clearly states that it is the will of the people of California that drug users are to receive treatment, not jail sentences.

Alan Fenster

Beverly Hills

It would appear that the prosecutors in Anaheim weren’t content to waste hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds incarcerating drug offenders in a fruitless effort to eliminate drugs, but now they are touting the expenditure of “hundreds of thousands and maybe millions” in trying to discern what is ostensibly common sense (“Judges Accused of Misapplying Prop. 36 Terms,” July 22).

Judges understand that drug users use “paraphernalia” for various purposes and have ruled accordingly, but public prosecutors are confounded by Prop. 36, or at least the spirit of the law, which says that drug offenders should get treatment, not prison, even if, for some reason, they just happen to possess some paraphernalia. The court action in Anaheim is just another attempt by obtuse drug-war zealots to avert judicial discretion and common sense in dealing with drug offenders, period.

Jim White

Oregon, Ohio