To The Editor:

I absolutely agree with Charles Gardner the drug war is a failure.  Offenders of nonviolent crimes don't need prison, they need rehabilitation health care and something this area doesn't offer...gainful employment.

Ask anyone who has been in prison.  It's a violent place with drugs galore.

Prison doesn't rehabilitate, it turns average people into cons and skilled criminals.

The Rockefeller drug laws need heavy duty reform.  They are as archaic as Nancy Reagan's ridiculous "Just say No" campaign, which was laughable to say the least when we all know she needed a trip to the Betty Ford Clinic for her pill popping zombie like state.

The United States needs to take a look at how other countries with low crime rates approach nonviolent crimes, like Holland.  As long as there is prohibition, there will be a black market.  Drugs will never go away, since man has evolved he has looked for an altered state of mind, it's just human nature.

We don't need more prisons, our state is filled with too many now, filled mostly with drug offenders.  We need a society that thinks and faces the facts.

Kelli Rentsch, Potsdam.  N.Y.