Abbie Hoffman wrote:
It's simple, really. Addiction is a disease. You don't treat diseases in prison. By decriminalizing drugs, people who are addicted and actively using drugs, they have more options for intervention, detoxification, treatment, relapse (if necessary), and aftercare.
I have never seen prison do any good for anyone who is addicted. In most cases, jail just makes it worse.
Abbie Hoffman,
Where do you draw your expertise from? While I worked in LE for 20+ yrs, 4 of which I worked in corrections, I saw many an inmate come into our facility “sucked up”. It took them several weeks to get back to “normal”. They would be offered many programs for their addiction, so many refused treatment, about 95 to 98%. They would complete their sentence and be released. It was not uncommon to see the same inmates within a years time “ sucked up” again. A majority of the charges they were arrested for were, petty theft (shop lifting), auto burglary, robbery, DUI, possession of drugs or weapons and there was other more serious crimes. Most of their victims were family or friends.
Like the saying goes “ you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink”. Disease or not if an addict doesn’t want to quit you can’t make them. Methadone a supposed cure is just as bad and many addicts on methadone would sell it to get the real stuff.
So by legalizing small amounts is going to help how? It’s only going to increase crime. Heroine addicts will never get that “high” like their first time. So they resort to crime to get their money and they need more dope to keep from getting sick. I don’t know of very many addicts holding a full time job to support their habit.
Have you ever encountered a “tweeker” or someone on LSD? They get violent or hallucinate and do strange things. Magic mushrooms cause strange behavior to.
I once knew an inmate that was a trustee in our jail. We would talk about his addiction and problems. He had a wife and two children. He swore and promised he was going to change. Several years later when I went out to patrol I had the unfortunate occasion to respond to his residence. I found him on the landing of his stairs in a sitting position with a syringe in his arm, deceased. He died of a “hot load”. Do you know how difficult it was keeping his family out of the house so they couldn’t see him, where and how he died.
Legalizing dope is not good, I don’t care what the amount is.
That’s just my informed and real life experience.