Drug policies push prison limits

To the editor:

I'm writing about your thoughtful May 7 editorial: "Pseudoephedrine."

Keeping the ingredients of meth behind the counter of licensed pharmacies 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 expensive. Primarily because of its tough-on-drugs policies, Oklahoma became the fourth highest state for incarcerations.

Primarily because of our war-on-drugs policies, the United States has been transformed into the most incarcerated nation in the history of human civilization. Even though we in the United States have fewer than 5 percent of the world's population, we have more than 25 percent of the world's prisoners.

In other words, one out of every four prisoners in the world is locked in an American jail or prison. What message does this send to the rest of the world?

KIRK MUSE, Mesa, Ariz.