Head-Spinning Political Shit!

[Toughy]

Originally Posted by betenoire

I also wanted to add that the prison system is a HUGE money maker for some people. So long as there are for-profit privately run/owned prisons there will -always- be overcrowding and people locked up for no good reason.

There is some huge ass number of folks in CA prisons and jails who have been convicted on non-violent drug offenses (many of them male POC). How about, they ALL get to go free and we end the stupid fucking 'war on drugs'.

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Toughy

There is some huge ass number of folks in CA prisons and jails who have been convicted on non-violent drug offenses (many of them male POC). How about, they ALL get to go free and we end the stupid fucking 'war on drugs'.

That would be a good start. You know what drives me to distraction about this ill-conceived policy? We've seen this movie. We *know* it doesn't work. It was called Prohibition. There is absolutely no reason to make narcotics illegal. There is no more logic behind it than there was making booze illegal. But it certainly 'feels' good in that it makes us believe we're doing 'something'.

What's even more disturbing is that this undermines our criminal justice system in a very profound manner. Think about the differential fates of the following people:

1) Young middle-class black woman gets caught with a pipe and a quarter ounce of green bud. She is going to go to jail, possibly prison for a few years.

2) Young, upper-middle class white woman gets caught with an eight-ball of coke. She gets community service and maybe rehab.

3) Young, poor black man gets caught with three or four rocks of crack cocaine. He's going to prison for a decade.

4) Young, upper-class white man does a sophisticated three-card monty game on the stock market, brings three or four companies to their knees, causing a couple of thousand people to be thrown out of work, ten percent of those folks lose their homes. He winds up a hero with his face on the cover of Business Week and a billion dollar bonus in his pocket.

Do those fates--and it is very difficult to argue that this sketch isn't realistic--seem reasonable to anyone here given the magnitude of effects these actions have in the real world?

I would argue that, in fact, the severity of punishment should be almost precisely the *opposite* of what you see above. The stock market con artist should be looking at spending most of the rest of his natural days behind bars, the middle two drug offenders should be given the option of rehab if they have a problem and otherwise let go and the first person should never even find her day disturbed by the police at all.

Cheers
Aj

[betenoire]

I wish I could remember who said this, because it was the most sensible one-line argument against the "war on drugs" I've ever read.

Why do they feel they have the moral high ground? All they’ve done is make bad people rich. (Talking about supporters of the war on drugs)

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by Toughy

There is some huge ass number of folks in CA prisons and jails who have been convicted on non-violent drug offenses (many of them male POC). How about, they ALL get to go free and we end the stupid fucking 'war on drugs'.

Thank you. The number of non-violent offenders in prison nationwide who are there purely for drug offenses is insane.

As a society it would be far cheaper (not to mention more humane and sensible) to provide rehab services.

Prisons are big business...big, profitable business. That's scary.

[DapperButch]

Two quick things to clarify...unless there has been an update to this information (which there certainly could have been):

1) Weiner did not say what he was going to treatment for and I don't believe that he has claimed sexual addiction.

2) The 17 year old was from Delaware and supposedly told "authorities" (whatever that means) that she did have contact with Weiner, but that he did not say anything inappropriate (meaning, sexual) to her at any time.

Did anyone hear anything different from the above today (don't want to give misinformation)?

[Toughy]

As a society it would be far cheaper (not to mention more humane and sensible) to provide rehab services.

There is some assumption that if you are in jail for drugs, you are a drug addict. I do not buy it. Not everyone who does legal or illegal drugs is addicted or needs rehab.

I am a believer that ALL drugs be made legal. Yep...legal heroin, coke, crack, other white powder and smoke. Regulated, taxed and safe ways to get safe product. It's a frigging waste of money and time and resources to keep them illegal.

[betenoire]

Originally Posted by Toughy

I am a believer that ALL drugs be made legal. Yep...legal heroin, coke, crack, other white powder and smoke. Regulated, taxed and safe ways to get safe product. It's a frigging waste of money and time and resources to keep them illegal.

It'd be safer for the people who are using the drugs -and- for everybody else if it were legal.

Seriously. Splash out a zillion safe-injection sites and watch the HIV rates drop. And the death rate. And the fucked up forever rate.

[JustJo]

Originally Posted by Toughy

There is some assumption that if you are in jail for drugs, you are a drug addict. I do not buy it. Not everyone who does legal or illegal drugs is addicted or needs rehab.

I am a believer that ALL drugs be made legal. Yep...legal heroin, coke, crack, other white powder and smoke. Regulated, taxed and safe ways to get safe product. It's a frigging waste of money and time and resources to keep them illegal.

I fail to see how saying we should provide rehab services implies in any way that everyone who uses drugs is an addict. Providing does not equal requiring....it simply means making them available to those who need them, yes?