Illicit
Drugs 
Menstuff® has information on the decrimilization of
all illicit drugs. The war on crime hasn't worked. What it
has done is set-up huge cartels and operations that have
been impossible to stop. And it's created a huge number of
addicts to Mehadone, many of whom continue to take illicit
drugs on top of their legal access to methedone. Billions
more are spent on breaking up drug houses and catching petty
criminals than on actually treating the addicts, not to
sustain their drug habit, but to get them 100% clean and
sober (the ones who are committed to doing so like
actor/comedian Russell Brand. Learn more. Watch his two
documentaries on the subject.
1:11 
;57 A town in Massachusetts decided to
stop arresting drug users. 2 months later, here's how it's
going.
What Prohibition can teach us about
the way we think about drugs today
Russell
Brand: From Addiction to Recovery
1:11
Russell
Brand - End the Drugs War (BBC Documentary
:57
Ralph Martin comment: I am a retired cop. This would have occurred if you had 16 deputies on that night. It was a random crime. The judicial system is what's broke in this country. Manufacture, distribution and sales of meth in this County get you 10 days in jail. That's a minor inconvenience for the criminal. If you read the booking log in the paper, about 75% of the arrests are for warrants. We are just recycling the same criminals over and over. Over 12 years ago Portugal decriminalized possession of all drugs. There prisons and jails emptied out, their crime rate dropped tremendously, their drug use decreased 17%, death from Heroin overdose decreased by half (they could ask for help without being arrested), it put the drug Cartels out of business, and they needed fewer cops, lawyers and judges. Our County Commissioners had the option to continue funding the Sheriff for 10 deputies this year and next in the budget. Smith and Brown chose to cut the Sheriff to 7 deputies. The road fund currently has $39 million dollars in it and received another $1.6 million for this year and next. That money could have been used to fund road deputies, but Smith and Brown chose not to, so why don't we put the blame on mismanagement where it belongs. Had they given road fund money to the Sheriff it no longer needs to be repaid.
Gordon Clay comment: I totally agree with Ralph. If you
want to see some very impressive information, the
actor/comedian Russell Brand made two documentaries to
support the decrimiliZation of all illicit drugs. If you
disagree, watch both of them before responding. The first
from 2012 called Russell Brand: From Addiction to Recovery
is 1:11 long and can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5ZnFp8ilik
The second is 1:35 long and was released in 2014 is called
Russell Brand - End the Drugs War (BBC Documentary) and can
be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDPtk5xmDes
A town in Massachusetts decided
to stop arresting drug users. 2 months later, here's how
it's going.
Back in June 2015, Gloucester, Massachusetts, police chief Leonard Campanello announced that his officers would no longer arrest drug users who approached them seeking help.
Instead, the department announced they would refer the drug users to treatment, and front the cost.
Gloucester has been struggling to combat a big heroin problem.
Between January and March 2015, the community experienced four overdose deaths — more than in all of 2014.
"It's a provocative idea to put out there," Chief Campanello told Upworthy, "But we knew we had to do something different."
Needless to say, there were many questions about whether Campanello's experiment would actually work.
How much money would it cost? Would it actually reduce the number of overdose deaths? Would drug users actually trust the police, knowing that admitting to possession could technically get them arrested at any time?
"I had a lot of skepticism," Chief Campanello said. "I didn't know if we were going to get one person or a thousand people."
After two months, the early results are in, and they look promising. Very promising.
According to Campanello, since June 1, an impressive number of addicted persons have made use of the program:
"We've had 116 people placed in treatment," Campanello explained. "No criminal charges. All placed on the same day."
In order to keep costs down, the police department managed to bargain down the cost of a life-saving detox drug from local pharmacies. Largely as a result, the department estimates that the cost of the program so far is less than $5,000.
Or, as Campanello put it in a recent Facebook post, "under $5,000.00 ... for 100 lives."
"We've built partnerships with treatment centers, health plans, health providers, other law enforcement, and certain the public, which has overwhelmingly supported this approach," he told Upworthy.
As a result of the positive early signs, Campanello and his team are working hard to take the program nationwide.
As with any new program, there are still a few kinks to work out.
Even after the initiative took effect in June, the epidemic of overdose deaths in Gloucester hasn't completely subsided. And given the outside-the-box nature of the program, there is still a lot of legal red tape to work through.
But progress has to start somewhere. .
And 100 people who would otherwise be sitting in jail now have a chance to repair their lives.
"It's extremely important for a police department to treat all people with respect," Campanello said. "Law enforcement doesn't exist to judge people."
With nonviolent drug users popping up in prison at
alarming rates, it's great to see evidence that when you
treat addicted persons like people instead of criminals,
good things can happen
Source: www.upworthy.com/a-town-in-massachusetts-decided-to-stop-arresting-drug-users-2-months-later-heres-how-its-going?c=upw1&u=07fa0e7f2d23f338b4a3b29d16b2a71a4c4e496b
What
Prohibition can teach us about the way we think about drugs
today
I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that beer is one of mankind's greatest inventions of all time ever in history.
It's hearty (mostly), it's cold (usually), and it just makes you feel really super great (please drink responsibly).
For years now, I've been telling anyone who will listen that beer is so delicious and magical that it deserves its own holiday.
So imagine my surprise when I learned that it actually has one.
April 7 is National Beer Day.
It commemorates the day in 1933 when, after over a decade of Prohibition, everyone was finally able to start drinking again.
National Beer Day is an unofficial holiday. You won't find it on any government calendar. But people all across America are celebrating.
(In basically the way you'd expect.)
But contrary to popular belief, National Beer Day isn't just some fake-ish holiday invented for bars to sell a little more booze and blown way out of proportion by the Internet.
(I mean, it is that. But it's not just that).
So buckle up, America. I'm about to lay the True Meaning (tm) of National Beer Day on you.
(Yes, Virginia, there is a coconut cream stout on draft).
Prohibition started in 1920 mostly because alcohol abuse was a serious problem — a nightmare for families and communities all across the country.
People thought banning booze was just the solution America needed.
But banning booze wasn't a great idea. Instead, it was an even bigger nightmare.
Just ask your great-grandparents.
(Your great-grandparents)
Crime
skyrocketed. Violent gangs ruled the streets
.
And corrupt city, state, and federal officials made law and
order a joke.
It only took us 13 years to realize this mistake.
When America finally came to its senses in 1933 and was like, "You know what? People are going to drink regardless. So maybe turning the alcohol industry into a massive, violent criminal enterprise isn't such a great idea after all," people breathed a huge sigh of relief.
The point being?
People are going to do what they do. Criminalizing it just drives it underground, wrecks communities, and makes it more dangerous.
Here's where we are now: As of 2013, there were roughly
1.5 million Americans in state and federal prison. About a
fifth of them — over 300,000 people — are
there for drug offenses.
(32 pages)
Many of them for just using drugs, not even selling, growing, or making them.
Even during Prohibition, there was no penalty for drinking booze — only for manufacturing or selling it. But today, you can be thrown in prison for using drugs in the privacy of your own home. On felony charges. Which follow you for the rest of your life.
On March 31, 2015, President Obama commuted the sentences of 22 people, almost all of whom were drug offenders serving decades-long prison terms. Some were even serving life sentences.
This is a step in the right direction. But it's not nearly enough.
Now, before you start getting all like, "Who is this moral degenerate who wants us all to start getting high on demand with reckless abandon and no consequences," I'm not suggesting legalizing drugs. I'm not even suggesting that the most hardened drug dealers and manufacturers shouldn't serve time in prison. Drugs destroy people's lives, and it's not unreasonable to suggest that contributing to that should come with some kind of cost.
What I am suggesting: Let the punishment fit the crime.
It's time to lower penalties for nonviolent drug offenders — and drastically lower them (or eliminate them) for nonviolent drug users.
If we can at least be as sensible about drugs in 2015 as America was about alcohol drinkers after Prohibition, we'd all be much better off.
So on National Beer Day, the most solemn of all holidays, let's all raise a glass to legally indulging in your vices.
In moderation, of course.
Source: www.upworthy.com/what-prohibition-can-teach-us-about-the-way-we-think-about-drugs-today?c=reccon3
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