Local doctor's arrest points up the folly of our war on drugs

Freeport doctor Robert L. Ignasiak Jr. faces a 54-count indictment including charges of healthcare fraud and illegally dispensing drugs which resulted in the death of two people.
His arrest points up the rising popularity of drug users to obtain powerful pharmaceutical drugs through seemingly legal channels.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, an estimated 20 percent of people in the United States have used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons and the numbers are rising, especially among young people. It is the elderly, however, who are those most vulnerable to prescription drug abuse as they are prescribed more medications.
NIDA says it doesn't know why this type of drug abuse is increasing but speculates the availability of drugs is probably the reason. "Doctors are prescribing more drugs for more health problems than ever before. Online pharmacies make it easy to get prescription drugs without a prescription, even for youngsters," said a NIDA report.
The Partnership for a Drug Free America's annual tracking study showed 1 in~5 teens has abused a prescription pain medication; 1 in~5 reported abusing prescription stimulants and tranquilizers and 1 in 10 has abused cough medication.
Such numbers show the conundrum of our national drug policy.
We outlaw the use of marijuana, an herb that many have found to be useful in treating a number of maladies. Marijuana has a relatively low addiction rate and those that do become dependent do so because of a psychological addiction to it as opposed to a physical addition.
We spend billions of dollars tracking down growers, sellers and users of marijuana and yet it's not the guy out in the woods growing weed that poses the greatest threat to our society.
It is the unscrupulous neighborhood doctor in his pretty white coat handing out the highly addictive OxyContin like M&Ms at the picture show. It is Grandma's medicine chest full of prescription drugs (all charged to Medicare) that she long ago quit taking because she "didn't like how it made her feel."
We can think of only a handful of drugs that have no useful purpose: heroin, cocaine and crystal meth. All are manufactured by illegal means. All are highly addictive and destructive to users.
Most all other drugs serve some useful purpose. Morphine is still one of the best pain relievers. Even OxyContin is said to be highly effective in treating the pain for which it was designed to treat.
How can we continue this stubborn zero tolerance for all drugs and wage a war we are clearly losing?
Earlier this month, the Pew Center on the States reported one in 100 people in the U.S. is incarcerated, more than any other country in the world. Florida saw the largest jump in prison population, doubling its number of inmates from 1993 - 2007.
An estimated 50 percent of the prison population is jailed on nonviolent offenses. One of the top recommendations by the Pew Center to avoid the fiscal disaster being created by the exploding prison population "is break the cycle of crime and addiction." It cites other states where incarceration numbers are being reduced by using a variety of tactics other than jail time.
Why can we not acknowledge that not all drugs are created equally and rather than lock people in jail for trying to cope with their physical addictions, spend money on putting them in treatment facilities?
Why can we not come to terms with the notion when there is a demand for a product, there is always going to be a supply?
We need to rethink our policy on drugs in America and come up with a strategy that takes the profit out of illegal drugs and puts money into the treatment of and the education about addictive drug use.