Who els thinks that drug addicts shouldn't be put in prison?

Question

No, and there are a number of reasons why. People some people don't choose to be drug addicts, they (like homos) are born drug addicts because of their parents or sumthin. Drug addicts won't hurt you. They just sit at home doing and its not their fault. They aint bothering you or doing crimes, yet they are put in prison with all these murdurers, robbers, criminals, child abusers, and all these bad people and that is NOT fair.

Answer 1

The State of California. Prop 36 recognized that treatment is a preferred alternative to incarceration (prison).

Instead, persons caught with drugs for personal use are given a chance (and then a second chance) to obtain treatment for their drug use as an alternative to a criminal sentence. If treatment is successful, their conviction is wiped away as if they were never arrested.

Answer 2

Drug addicts should be placed in an institution to recieve treatment. Prison is what a drug usesr gets , after killing or doing some terrible crime. They do sober off in a hurry and then realize the terrible crimes they have committed. If we continue to ignore the drug addict, and he/she continues to search and buy from a drug dealer, then the drug system, just keeps going in circles. You are 100% wrong when you say drug addicts won't hurt you. Many people high on Meth, Ice, Cocaine, have went off the deep end and killed innocent people. They even kill themselves , because they are so bent out of shape. Some realize that they are so high and have such a bad habit, that they get tierd and even kill themselves. When a drug addict kills, or does something really bad, they need to do the time. If ya do the crime, ya gotta do the time. We can not over look these poor wretched users. But it would be great if the Families, Friends, would commit the drug user, before any crime is done. One other thing that the drug user does, is horrible. They neglect and abuse their Precious small Children. When drug users are high on drugs, they don't even know where or how their children are. Think of this drunk/high Mother, put her newborn in the Microwave and thought she was warming the crying babies bottle. The stories about how Children suffer, and are terribly neglected, both day and night. It is not only the Fathers, but the Mothers. It is one terrible thing to have a druggie Father, but when a small child has a druggie Mother it is even worse. Commitment is first in line to help a drug user, who has not commited a crime, then if that doesn't work and a crime has been committed, Prison is the next step.

Answer 3

I was addicted to cocaine, and have now been sober for two years. Not once in the course of my addiction did I rob anyone, break into anyone's house, or steal to support my habit. I was a "functional addict" who worked a regular 9-5 who just liked to get high after work and on weekends. The only reason I stopped using was because I was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance. I was granted 2 years' probation and sentenced to 90 days in a rehabilitation center. Drug use is a non-violent offense that should not carry prison time. Some addicts don't have the resources or the desire to obtain treatment, and it takes for those people to get into trouble with the law (myself included) before they are willing to get the help they need. This does not work for everyone, but there have been cases of truly rehabilitated drug addicts who just needed a little push.

True, there are addicts out there who have committed crimes to support their habit or because they weres supposedly "too high to know any better," but there are more people killed every year by drunk drivers and murderers. Driving while intoxicated carries a misdemeanor charge. Why shouldn't simple drug possession carry a simple misdemeanor charge if there is no crime committed in connection with obtaining the drug? I know there are exceptions to every rule, but for the most part, incarceration does not rehabilitate the basic drug "user." I think that for first-time drug offenders, there should be a program in which the offender is sentenced to a drug program which, upon successful completion, the charge is cleared from their record. Post-rehab follow up should be mandated for a set time determined by the judge. Some states do have programs similar to these (Texas is one of them), but it is up to the discretion of the judge to utilize this program, and many don't.

Answer 4

Drug addicts tend to commit other crimes mainly just to get the money to buy the drugs. If recreational drugs were legal and the people using them weren't ostracized by their family and their employers in the first place, then they could have jobs to pay for their habit and wouldn't need to sink to the level of commiting crimes against other people or their property. Think about it - alcohol is a relatively dangerous drug yet it's completely legal and cheap. When is the last time somebody burglarized a house or robbed a gas station on order to pay for a six-pack? And why is alcohol legal, and yet marijuana isn't? When is the last time a man beat up his wife because he was under the influence of marijuana? (news flash: it's NEVER happened).

Answer 5

Probably the single biggest reason NOT to put them in prison is that it doesn't help. Decades of statistics show that prison does not cause people to stop using drugs, and in many cases either creates or reinforces the habit.

Besides, drug USE is a victim-less crime. By itself, using drugs harms nobody but the user. So, a serious prison sentence is way out of proportion given the nature of the offense.

For those who argue that drug use causes other criminal behavior, that's not relevant to the issue. If the person breaks OTHER crimes (besides 'use'), then punish them for those other crimes. If the person doesn't commit other crimes, then punishing them for something they MIGHT do is against basic jurisprudence.

Answer 6

So your saying that a drug addict has never committed a crime? Let's just assume that drug addict number one never has committed a crime such as theft, robbery, or rape or murder. Using illegal drugs is a crime and therefore they are criminals. Most drug addicts chose to become that way. A criminal is a criminal is a criminal.

Let's say that a drug addict murdered some one you loved very much. Would you still feel the same way?

Answer 7

most drug addicts are in prison for committing another crime like burglary or armed robbery. I think they deserve to be there for those crimes.

Answer 8

I have yet to hear of any drug addict [who wasn't famous already] who could support their habit out of their own money.

Dealing and thieving seem to be their favored ways of getting the money their habit consumes.


I'm not interested in supplying their habit, so don't even suggest that we should give them free drugs.


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