Letters to the Editor

Drug war is costly failure

8/24/2013

Your thoughtful and accurate Aug. 15 editorial “Smart on crime,” about the wasteful costs of locking up nonviolent drug offenders, was spot-on. Anyone who knows anything about drug abuse and addiction from the inside knows that treatment is the only humane and cost-efficient answer.

Incarceration is a recipe for creating more-serious criminals. The so-called war on drugs has been a costly and abysmal failure.

Terming our current laws Draconian, as you did, is a most apt description.

DONALD CARR

Sylvania

 

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Postal Service needs to cut back

After I read Gail Colllins’ Aug. 15 op-ed column, “How to save the Postal Service,” I had some questions.

Why not end Saturday delivery of mail? There is not one item of mail — junk or otherwise — that can’t wait until Monday.

Why not close some of the 31,272 post offices that underachieve and underperform? We do not need a post office within walking distance of everyone in the United States.

The scary thing is that the people who hold the checkbook are members of Congress. No wonder the Postal Service is in the shape it’s in.

Maybe, as Ms. Collins suggests, we can sell ice cream out of the other side of the mail truck.

BILL SCHLAGHECK

Belvedere Drive

 

Voyeur incidents draw questions

Matthew Gonzalez would have known that the three teenaged girls he videoed when he owned Matthew Vincente Salon were minors if he had followed state procedures for tanning beds and booths (“Salon owner sentenced to 15 years prison; Maumee man secretly filmed girls while they undressed," Aug. 22).

I am a retired hairdresser and worked at a salon that had tanning beds. I was present when a state inspector would check tanning record cards, which are to have names, addresses, and birth dates of those who use tanning booths. If a tanner is a minor, a parent or guardian must sign.

The girls who were videotaped may not be so trusting of any other tanning salon. That’s sad.

MARY POE

Primrose Avenue

 

Legacy program elicits praise

Thank you for the excellent article on the Legacy Area Program (“Woodward and Scott highs team in summer project,” Aug. 11).

I was the steersman for the Young Men of Excellence/​Young Women of Excellence at the Partners In Education Dragon Boat Festival this summer. The students, primarily from Woodward High School, showed courage, grit, and determination as they went from being novices on the water to winning their final heat.

Kudos also to their adviser, Meighan Richardson, who has exposed these young adults to wonderful experiences and opportunities this summer.

ED CONN

Maumee