I'm not sure about other states, but I heard that in California as of
January, 2002, people found in possession of small quantities and people
found using drugs will no longer be incarcerated. Instead, they will be
sent to drug diversion therapy programs. Of course, nothing will change for
the dealers.
I happen to know a few people who were given the chance to clean up rather
than go to jail. Their lives were otherwise fine and the system recognized
that these were not your typical criminals. They all stopped using and
resumed normal lives. Therapy works. Jail is not therapy. People are not
"reformed" by sitting in a cell. If anything, they go insane or become
criminals while they're incarcerated. And courtesy of overcrowding in the
jails, these newly-trained criminals will most likely hit the streets in a
few years, broke poor, and will be finding uncoventional ways to survive -
such as theft and violence.
I think it's absolutely ridiculous to send a drug user to jail. Attacking
dealers is a waste of time too. That's sort of like trying to combat online
music piracy. There's simply too many of them out there to get them all.
We could spend billions of tax dollars on attacking users and dealers and
the problem will never go away.
If you want to attack the problem, go after the pot farmers and drug labs.
Cut off the sources of the drugs and people won't be able to sell them or
use them. And coincidentally, you'll find a lot of home growers doing their
own thing when the supply runs out - much the way it used to be until
politics stepped in and decided to criminalize the use of drugs. Remember,
even alcohol was banished from the US.
Frankly, if you look at the statistics, alcohol and tobacco are responsible
for more deaths than any other source. So why not criminalize those while
we're at it?
---mark
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Mark Warrick - Fusioneers.com
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