To The Reader’s Forum:

My son died in August of 2016. I have an opinion on the efforts of President Trump to promote a death penalty for drug dealers.

It may surprise some people because my son died of an overdose of heroin. The reason being even though my son was making a good living, resorted to burglary to support his drug habit and I never had any indication he was dealing to support his drug habit. But I also never had any indication he wasn’t dealing to support his drug habit. As we all know drug addiction is a disease that makes the user do just about anything in an effort to obtain the drug. Sometimes that includes dealing the drugs themselves. I’m uncomfortable with a death penalty for drug dealers because they may have a dependency on drugs themselves and need help as well.

So, keeping that in mind, are we going to be sending people to death because of a disease they don’t have any control over and need help to obtain recovery?

Sally Olson,

Jamestown