Re: this is your war on drugs
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
unless you think these people are going to suddenly just randomly pick new crimes to commit, I'd have to say you're wrong.
[/ QUOTE ]
That's precisely what I believe. The basic point is simple, everyone has to eat, and these people are not going to go to work, so they'll find other activities to provide for themselves, car theft, strong arm robbery, etc.
[/ QUOTE ]
For drug DEALERS, maybe so; but not for drug USERS. Didn't you earlier state a statistic that 98% of incarcerated drug offenders were imprisoned for recreational drug use (which I take to mean, using drugs but not actually dealing drugs)? Therefore if drugs were decriminalized, released drug users would not immediately jump to some crime like car theft or armed robbery.
Imagine if, during Prohibition, alcohol USERS had been imprisoned to the extent which drug users are today. Wouldn't you look at that as a big "WTF"??? I can't believe most drug users would just go out and commit other crimes.
[/ QUOTE ]
While a good point, the main hole in your logic here is that very few drug users are incarcerated for any real period of time (more than a week or two) their first offense, unless they get a lunatic judge, which does happen.
Most people in prison for the offense of drug use are repeat offenders, often with a collection of charges which by themselves appear trivial, but taken together as a whole, you see the mindset of a criminal.
Now sure, you may be unfortunate enough to spend some time doing community service work for your bag of weed, and possibly paying a fine, maybe even spending 24-72 hours in the county lock-up, but anytime you encounter someone who has been to actual prison for an actual sentence of more than a year, 99% of the time they have other charges, sometimes drug related, sometimes not. OP's case is the exception, not the rule.
|