Editor:

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population, but it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

To what benefit is it for a highly educated citizen to enter into the penal system? I am of course speaking of the Sept. 30 article "Dentist gets prison in drug case." As it happens to so many, this doctor was legitimately prescribed pain medications when they were truly needed and grew to depend on them. The Riverton doctor continued using poor judgment and falsely prescribed the pain meds for himself.

Doctors who become addicted to drugs can be treated successfully and returned to medical practice with the help of special programs that couple referral to treatment and monitoring.

One of the first things that need fixing in the states would be to reduce the sentencing of nonviolent drug offenders. The cost-benefits analysis will favor not spending the massive amounts of money to incarcerate as to treat as a medical and social problem. The (very powerful) prison and police unions and lobbies are not for it because they'll lose funds, but ultimately we will all benefit in violence reduction and tax savings by using long and costly prison terms for those who pose a real threat to society.

Nonviolent drug offenders could use sensible counseling in place of a jail cell. Marijuana should be removed from the schedule of prohibited drugs and the federal enforcement agencies should stay out of the doctor-patient relationship. That would be a modest but necessary start at bringing down America's obscene incarceration rate.

I do not condone a doctor illegally prescribing drugs for his own use, but is this a monumental infraction to a society or more of an individual problem needing help through medical and addiction avenues? Nonviolent drug offenders could use sensible counseling in place of a jail cell.

A study in JAMA states the analysis of opinion surveys by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that 78 percent of Americans view the nation's war on drugs as a failure, yet they favor more severe penalties for the possession and sale of drugs.

Its "lock em" up attitude to nonviolent crimes is the reason for the explosion of prisoners into the system. If jail is a deterrent, why is there an ever-growing population of criminals and newer and bigger prisons needing to be built?

DIANNA McKAY, Casper