It’s A Gray Area:

I was gratified to see that the editorial board of the Daily Pilot endorsed Proposition 5, which is the Non-Violent Offender’s Rehabilitation Act, with the headline “Prison is for drug dealers, not customers.”

They are right, and I commend them for their insight and sophistication.

As I have said in previous columns, it makes as much sense to me to put the gifted actor Robert Downey Jr. in jail for his cocaine addiction, and he certainly seems to have one, as it would to have put Betty Ford in jail for her addiction to alcohol.

Drug addictions are medical problems, and they are better addressed by health-care professionals than by policemen.

But if Robert Downey Jr., Betty Ford, or you or I drive a motor vehicle while impaired by any of these drugs, or engage in any other offense while under the influence, bring them to the criminal justice system.

What’s the difference?

Because now by their actions these people are putting our safety at risk. So the answer is to hold people accountable for what they do, but not for what they put into their bodies.

In my mind, most of the people who support Proposition 5 on the ballot this November agree with that fundamental concept.

Face it: You or I could come home any evening and drink 10 martinis and, if we are 21 or older, we would not be violating the law.

Obviously this would not be a healthy thing for us to do, but as long as we are not putting anyone else’s safety at risk, society wisely has left those problems to be addressed by drug education and treatment.

Why have we not done the same thing with regard to people who use other mind-altering and sometimes addictive substances?

Our great country now leads the world in the incarceration of its people.

And a large number of them are in custody only because they either possessed or were under the influence of some illicit drug.

In fact, a ridiculously high number of people are put back into custody only because they were found to have been possessing or using drugs while on parole.

That is an enormous waste of time, tax money and lives.

And it doesn’t begin to address the many families who are placed onto welfare or children into foster care because their parents and breadwinners are taken away for such things as smoking marijuana or using other drugs.