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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: 2, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 04 2021, @03:24AM (4 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 04 2021, @03:24AM (#1108796) Journal

    This may surprise you but I'm actually against . . .

    You've already started down that slippery slope by approving of abortion. Little else matters, you approve of destroying innocent life.

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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 04 2021, @01:05PM (3 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday February 04 2021, @01:05PM (#1108877) Journal

    You don't read what people write, do you? Shoulda known I was wasting my breath...you don't give a damn for "innocent lives," you just don't like the idea of being "outbred."

    Answer me this though: why, WHY, are the most staunchly anti-abortion people always the best arguments for abortion in, just to pick a random example, the 197th trimester?

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
    • (Score: 2, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 04 2021, @02:34PM (2 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 04 2021, @02:34PM (#1108899) Journal

      You don't read what people write, do you?

      Projecting again, I see.

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday February 05 2021, @01:38AM (1 child)

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday February 05 2021, @01:38AM (#1109151) Journal

        Then engage honestly with what people write to you! Answer the fucking questions: what are YOU doing, in your personal life and in your politics, to change circumstances for people such that they are less likely to think they need to have an abortion? I gave you a comprehensive list of things that have been shown, time and time again, in the real world, to lower the abortion rate.

        --
        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
        • (Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 05 2021, @02:07PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 05 2021, @02:07PM (#1109299) Homepage Journal

          The irony there is breathtaking. When's the last time you engaged with anyone who disagreed with you honestly? When's the last time you asserted a position and defended it? Mostly you just throw a fit, hurl insults, and fail at attacking their position. It's to the point that it can't be for any reason other than because you know yours cannot be defended.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.