Comments on: The First Step Towards Reform Is Admitting Failure

By: holeybuybull

holeybuybull — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:19:37 +0000

Read the second sentence in my comment @8.

By: nik12

nik12 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:07:31 +0000

That’s one way to deal with it.

I will disagree with you though that the harmful and anti-social effects of crack and methamphetamine usage are entirely localized within the user.

By: holeybuybull

holeybuybull — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 22:54:16 +0000

Decriminalization or legalization of all “drugs” would result in the death of the profit motive and the violence associated with the drug trade. Unless ingesting drugs results in one person harming another, the government has no justification in any involvement with victimless crimes. The government approved methods for dealing with this non-problem that they’ve created, whether it is through the incarceration industry or the treatment industry, is just another effort to repay those who bankroll the clowns making and enforcing the laws.

By: Jon Walker

Jon Walker — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 20:38:10 +0000

rhetoric is important. It shapes how we think and talk about issues.

By: PCM

PCM — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:24:10 +0000

Pre-trial diversion into mandatory treatment for non-violent first-time offenders? Routine in a number of other jurisdictions, and not remotely an end to the War On Drugs. A Republican prosecutor devised and helped set up my city’s “drug court” diversion program 18 years ago, and his Republican successor strongly supports it. Christie’s announcement is pretty small beer.

By: jodo

jodo — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:12:20 +0000

The PTB never admit to failure because the system has already been fixed to make them wealthy beyond belief at the expense of the 99ers. That’s the reason the policies have failed from the onset. Real reform is impossible under our current corrupt system of government.

By: nik12

nik12 — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:03:39 +0000

For people who are convicted of cocaine, heroin and related substances possession crimes, this is big step in a positive direction. Moving away from incarceration and towards treatment could help reduce unnecessary damage currently being done to American communities (e.g., prevent breaking up families and improve employability prospects).

While I know a lot of people here are focused on marijuana crimes, those crimes are not the whole picture of the War on Drugs. Last I checked, DEA statistics showed that approximately 23% of all arrests are for cocaine/heroin possession crimes, and I would assume the conviction and incarceration rates are much higher than that.

Long story short, this could help a lot of people and communities. Hopefully other Republicans (and Democrats) start taking a more serious look at the costs of the current War on Drugs.

By: magilla

magilla — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:56:42 +0000

When it is uneeded and dictated by an arbirtrary standard imposed by Prohibition Policy, it is.
Jello Biafra has called it Ethnic Cleansing. Good respectable boozers run free unless they step outside certain legal standards of behavior like drunk driving, drunk and disorderly, MIP, etc.
Otherwise, they are not “Abusers” in any clinical sense.
Surreal indeed. Pot policy is more of a witch hunt than a realistic response to a plant and its euphoric properties.

By: holeybuybull

holeybuybull — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:42:30 +0000

Are these “Treatment” facilities the equivalent of re-education camps? Surreal.

By: magilla

magilla — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:08:14 +0000

Forcing people into uneeded “Treatment” is like forcing people into incarceration.
Without clear distinctions between responsible use and actual drug abuse there can be no reasonable, realistic mental health policy.
But the Treatment For Profit industry is like the Prisons For Profit industry.
Declaring millions of people to be either criminals or crazy feeds their coffers, and those coffers will donate to political campaigns.
What a racket.