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Oregon law to decriminalize all drugs goes into effect, offering addicts rehab instead of prison:
"I lived in the bottom for years," says [Janie] Gullickson, 52. "For me and people like me, I laid there and wallowed in it for a long time."
But if she has to pick the lowest point – one that lasted years, not days, she says – it came shortly after she hit 30 in 1998. At that time, Gullickson had five kids, ages 5 to 11, by four different men. She came home from work one day as a locksmith to find that her ex-husband had taken her two youngest and left the state. Horrified, devastated and convinced that this was the beginning of the end, her life spiraled: She dropped her other son off with his dad, left her two daughters with her mom and soon became an IV meth user.
In prison six years later, Gullickson was contemplating joining an intensive recovery program when a "striking, magnetic gorgeous Black woman walked in the room, held up a mug shot and started talking about being in the very chairs where we were sitting," Gullickson remembers. There was life on the other side of addiction and prison, the woman said. But you have to fight for it. Gullickson believed her.
"I remember thinking, I may not be able to do all that, be what she was, but maybe I could do something different than this," Gullickson says. "That day, I felt the door open to change and healing."
Now Gullickson, executive director of the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon, is determined to give other addicts the same opportunity. That's why she pushed for the passage of Measure 110, first-of-its-kind legislation that decriminalizes the possession of all illegal drugs in Oregon, including heroin, cocaine, meth and oxycodone. Instead of a criminal-justice-based approach, the state will pivot to a health-care-based approach, offering addicts treatment instead of prison time. Those in possession will be fined $100, a citation that will be dropped if they agree to a health assessment.
The law goes into effect Monday and will be implemented over the next decade by the state officials at the Oregon Health Authority.
[...] "I hope that we all become more enlightened across this country that substance abuse is not something that necessitates incarceration, but speaks to other social ills – lack of health care, lack of treatment, things of that nature," says Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., an outspoken critic of the War on Drugs.
[...] Watson Coleman also points out that it's far more expensive to pay to incarcerate someone than get them treatment. Rehab programs not only empower people, she says, but they also save communities money.
Also at: CNN.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 02 2021, @07:47PM (3 children)
WTF kind of logic is that? Individuals without a history of substance abuse are less likely to abuse in the future than individuals with a history of abuse and conviction? Give this man a CAPTAIN OBVIOUS award, right away.
And there's your indicator for stronger action. Front line: give offenders the opportunity of rehab, if they fail that I'm in favor of prison as a second response. Not sure what Oregon is doing, but I do know some counties in Florida send 90% straight to prison with no first shot at rehab - even though rehab is both cheaper and more effective. It's political: punishment gets more votes than helping people.
My primary source is, admittedly, very biased: the chief rehab psychologist who gets the 10% who aren't shipped straight to prison. I'm sure she's mostly there as an escape hatch for the politically connected who somehow can't avoid being arrested and charged with substance abuse, it also doesn't hurt that the county gets federal funds that more than cover her program's expenses in exchange for her running the program, but your statistics are not disagreeing with hers.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Socrastotle on Tuesday February 02 2021, @08:23PM (2 children)
"Success" was talking about avoiding crime, not substance abuse.
The ideal is that since addiction often drives crime, if you treat the addiction then you reduce the criminality to something more approach the rate for normal society. The recidivism rate, of any crime, for convicted addicts was 48%. For convicted non-addicts it was 44%. They found that treating the addiction the addicts recidivism rate also became 44%. So the overall results were a decrease, but a negligible one that was not even below that of the general convict recidivism rate.
(Score: 5, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday February 02 2021, @09:01PM (1 child)
So, we don't care about substance abuse then?
I don't give a flip about the legality of "substances" - whether you have an alcohol, fentanyl, oxy, cocaine, tobacco or gambling problem - society as a whole will benefit if you are able to get yourself out of a self-harming addiction. By the way, if it's not bothering you or anybody else, by definition it is not a problem and treatment should not even be discussed, much less suggested or mandated.
As for statistics, I find them mostly to exist under layers of lies and damn lies making flimsy attempts at supporting pre-conceived positions.
If the discussion is about out-patient rehab vs incarceration, let us not lose sight of the massive cost difference. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/12/17/the-hidden-cost-of-incarceration#:~:text=The%20Bureau%20of%20Justice%20Statistics,2.3%20million%20people%20behind%20bars. [themarshallproject.org] https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends-prison-spending [vera.org] https://nicic.gov/economic-burden-incarceration-us-2016 [nicic.gov]
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 02 2021, @10:19PM
So, we don't care about substance abuse then?
from one goal post mover to another
the true cost of incarceration [ignores] important social costs...this approaches 6% of gross domestic product and dwarfs the amount spent on corrections...the aggregate burden of incarceration would still exceed $500 billion annually.
By logical extension, we should not incarcerate anyone.
A better idea... trials should be transformed from determining guilt and punishment on infractions of the law to weighing how much GDP is lost due to the actions of the accused vs. their "incarceration cost". We could have some actuaries whip up some tables and justice could be dispensed at the point of infraction Judge Dredd style.