Pubdate: Sat, 06 Aug 2005 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2005 The Dallas Morning News Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Kirk Muse Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) BETTER THAN PRISONS Keeping the ingredients of meth behind the counter is certainly a lot better solution than the previous non-solution of building more and bigger prisons. Oklahoma learned the hard way that the so-called "tough on drugs" policies don't work and are very expensive. Largely because of their "tough on drugs" policies, Oklahoma became the fourth-highest state for incarcerations. Largely because of our war on drugs policies, the U.S. has been transformed into the most-incarcerated nation in history. Even though we in the U.S. have fewer than 5 percent of the world's population, we have more than 25 percent of the world's prisoners. What message does this send to the rest of the world? Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth