Addicts are not CRIMINALS!

This guy hits the nail right on the head. Our current justice system is broken when it comes to dealing with addicts. Skip ahead to 3:45

Skip ahead to 3:45

THANK YOU. Nothing says, "we don't give a duck about you", like throwing people who need help in prison to rot.
a reply to: eastbosbud

a reply to: Boomy327

It definitely destroys lives.. Just try to get a job after a felony conviction.

Yes and no... If the adict was just buying hadn't hurt anyone they have no business in prison.

If said adict crippled or killed anyone, they bloody well are criminals.

Addiction is a disease, not a criminal act.

Addicts are not criminals..that's true.
Unless they steal from or harm others to continue their habit.
That makes them criminals.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I totally agree. if you commit a crime you should be held responsible...but addiction is a result of trauma..

a reply to: Kryties

Addiction is a disease but doing criminal acts to support your addiction is a crime.

originally posted by: thesaneone
a reply to: Kryties

Addiction is a disease but doing criminal acts to support your addiction is a crime.

Fine, theres an easy way to solve that. Prosecute those doing the illegal acts and leave the countless others who aren't alone.

Also, making drugs legal and a matter of health rather than law would reduce the amount of drug related crime - as is evidenced in those countries that have legalised drugs.

It's quite simple really.

a reply to: eastbosbud

Addiction is a result of using some form of addictive material. There's any number of reasons why somebody uses that material. Trauma is one of them, but not the only one and trying to paint it as such is willfully ignorant.

Addiction is not criminal. But an addict can most certainly be a criminal.

originally posted by: Kryties

originally posted by: thesaneone
a reply to: Kryties

Addiction is a disease but doing criminal acts to support your addiction is a crime.

Fine, theres an easy way to solve that. Prosecute those doing the illegal acts and leave the countless others who aren't alone.

Also, making drugs legal and a matter of health rather than law would reduce the amount of drug related crime - as is evidenced in those countries that have legalised drugs.

It's quite simple really.

Sorry but there is nothing easy about it and in what countries are hard drugs legalized?

For what it's worth, the non-violent offenders who's only crime was buying pot have no business in prison, in my opinion.

The second the addiction causes a person to ruin someone else's life all bets are off.

Edit: one last thing, I'm a recovering gambling adict... Not every addiction revolves around a substance. I'm 10 years since my last casino trip and it's something in my head every single day.
I crave it the same way some crave booze or cigarettes or drugs.

a reply to: thesaneone

Portugal I believe has had success with legalization I believe, maybe another country in South America as well but I can't think of any for sure other than Portugal.

isn´t it criminal to have drugs in your possession ? So starting to use beside the fact drugs are criminal and having these on your posession its a calculated risk to be arrested. And they choose to do so...

Simply being an addict is not a crime until itself, but considering that most petty criminals are addicts, I don't think you can entirely separate the two.

While I understand that addiction could be considered a disease and many people fall into addiction for a variety of reasons, I still have a hard time feeling sorry for them. My beef is that their addiction is a scourge on society in general. Without addicts, we'd have no drug dealers and all the associated violent crime.

I don't believe throwing addicts in jail is an efficient use of time as it doesn't solve the underlying issues assuming their crimes are not too serious. However, maybe we need to stop calling it jail and maybe call it forced rehab or something.

originally posted by: thesaneone

Sorry but there is nothing easy about it and in what countries are hard drugs legalized?

From: content.time.com

Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?

Portugal, which in 2001 became the first European country to officially abolish all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs, including marijuana, coc aine, heroin and methamphetamine.

At the recommendation of a national commission charged with addressing Portugal's drug problem, jail time was replaced with the offer of therapy. The argument was that the fear of prison drives addicts underground and that incarceration is more expensive than treatment — so why not give drug addicts health services instead? Under Portugal's new regime, people found guilty of possessing small amounts of drugs are sent to a panel consisting of a psychologist, social worker and legal adviser for appropriate treatment (which may be refused without criminal punishment), instead of jail.

The question is, does the new policy work? At the time, critics in the poor, socially conservative and largely Catholic nation said decriminalizing drug possession would open the country to "drug tourists" and exacerbate Portugal's drug problem; the country had some of the highest levels of hard-drug use in Europe. But the recently released results of a report commissioned by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, suggest otherwise.

The paper, published by Cato in April, found that in the five years after personal possession was decriminalized, illegal drug use among teens in Portugal declined and rates of new HIV infections caused by sharing of dirty needles dropped, while the number of people seeking treatment for drug addiction more than doubled.

"Judging by every metric, decriminalization in Portugal has been a resounding success," says Glenn Greenwald, an attorney, author and fluent Portuguese speaker, who conducted the research. "It has enabled the Portuguese government to manage and control the drug problem far better than virtually every other Western country does."

Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used coc aine than Portuguese have used marijuana.

The proof is in the pudding.

I'm so not okay with the pseudo science meme of addiction being a disease. Yes, I've heard your poor reasoning before, and I know you really think it's sound, and has science backing it. It's not, and the science wasn't there when the claim was made, and has been manufactured since. There's too much evidence of this, that shows it's not possible to be a disease. It's just not what diseases are.

Now, as for addicts being criminals, this one is complicated. They're not synonymous, unless you believe that everyone who breaks laws are automatically criminals, and not victims of a corrupt justice system, at times. If you think/feel the latter, then only some who are addicts commit crimes. Disproportionately, you'd see addicts committing crimes, but then you must wonder if drugs were legalized, to what extent would this same increase be present?

One of the things that ticks me off is seeing criminals as immoral, and bad people. As if everyone in jail is somehow an evil person. That's complete ignorance, and I hope we can see through this in time. Thinking addicts are always criminals isn't too far off of this. I don't think addicts should be incarcerated, but I also don't think the solution lies in a mental-health facility for all of them. I think the ultimate solution is a healthy terrain, and that transcends the individual, and places blame on things we're not willing to really go after, like the culture, society, assumptions in economics, and so forth. An individual within a healthy terrain will not seek out drugs. They will be healthy and happy with what is. Please don't point to well off suburbanites taking lots of drugs *sigh* this would be the same mentality that is part of the problem.

If a person's an addict they need help and throwing them in prison won't help anyone, especially them. But, we can't judge all the addicts who stole to support their habits by saying they're criminals. Most of the time, by doing that it automatically means they should go to prison with no help.

Nonviolent crimes that are the result of addiction should result in some form of punishment, but the help and support provided should far outweigh the punishment. And it shouldn't be three months then you're on your own. Long term care and support. Not easy to provide for all addicts, it's more like wishful thinking considering how our current system is.

The addicts who commit violent crimes most definitely should receive great punishment (depending on the circumstances though). But again, imo they're also entitled to help.

The system stinks, pretty much all of it. I can't see it providing the necessary help addicts in jail should receive in my lifetime. S + F

originally posted by: Kryties
Addiction is a disease, not a criminal act.

Agree...addiction is not a criminal act, but as far as being a disease - I strongly disagree. Cancer, heart disease, etc. are diseases. Addiction is a choice (although unfortunate - its still a choice). No one chooses to get cancer or parkinsons.