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You are the perfect example of why the drug laws in this country are retarded.

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I can't decide how I feel about MT2R's punishment. It's obviously [censored] that he went to a max prison, that goes without saying. But a year... I don't know. Maybe 6-8 months would be better.

Would he have changed his lifestyle without prison time and just a couple years of probation? Probably. He says he would have. But at the same time, that feels like a "get out of jail free card" in my opinion. I mean... if you know you can do whatever drugs you want and at worse you will get probation... that's not really a deterrant.

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I think you're really understimating how big an impact even the slightest punishment can have. I got pinched for posession in college. I spent a couple of days in the local lockup. All charges were eventually dropped so basically nothing happened to me besides losing a weekend and having my girlfriend laugh at me when I didn't come in that night and the first phone call she gets has a recording: "This is a call from an inmate..."

In spite of no real punishment, it drove me away from drugs in all except the most secure/private situations. I pretty quickly decided it wasn't even worth the hassle and stopped using all together.

I think there's two types of people - those that can change and those that can't. It doesn't really matter how long you lock up either the type. Those that can change will usually change after almost any punishment. Those that can't change will be right back to their old habits after whatever punishment you give them.

Anyhow, that's my rant. Thanks for sharing this mt2r. Interesting stuff!