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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 02 2021, @10:21AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong? dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Mykl on Wednesday February 03 2021, @01:24AM (3 children)

    by Mykl (1112) on Wednesday February 03 2021, @01:24AM (#1108217)

    Pro Death Penalty people are not Christian.

    One of the key tenets of the Christian faith is redemption. It's why people (particularly Catholics) go to church every Sunday - to be cleansed of their sins. For all of their weirdness, I have to give credit to the Mormons for their dedication to this principle (random doorknocks for their entire lives are worth it if they convert just one person). If you kill someone, they lose the opportunity to be redeemed (regardless of the likelihood of success in any given case). Anyone who supports removing the possibility of redemption from someone and damning them to an eternity in Hell cannot also be Christian.

    If you are non-Christian and support the Death Penalty then go ahead and fill your boots.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday February 03 2021, @02:25AM (2 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Wednesday February 03 2021, @02:25AM (#1108255) Journal

    Did you know most early (as in, pre-Nicene) Christian church fathers were Universalist? They didn't believe no one went to Hell so much as that no one stayed there for eternity. It's very interesting to notice that the idea of eternal torture grew in popularity only with linguistic, geographic, and (with the exception of Tertullian), chronological distance from the start of the religion, isn't it? :)

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2021, @02:39AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 03 2021, @02:39AM (#1108274)

      Eternal punishment is much more effective as a means of control.

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 04 2021, @12:33AM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday February 04 2021, @12:33AM (#1108722) Journal

        Oh, definitely. But I can't help but notice virtually no Christian, ever, anywhere, cares enough about their religion or their God or the history of their beliefs to actually research it.

        I actually think the Bible teaches (eventual) Annihilationism rather than Universalism, i.e., people go to Hell but are eventually completely annihilated, but the ante-Nicene patristics weren't idiots and it's possible I misunderstood some of their arguments. In either case, though, Annihilationism kept me a Christian much longer than I would have remained one otherwise.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...