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Excellent artical, I couldn't agree more. I have worked in the drug rehabilitation industry working closely with addicts. Many of my collegues and myself included recognise that the imprisonment of drug users only compounds the problem. Giving someone a criminal record seriously affects employment oppertunities leading to unemployment and a strain on the system. Unemployed people are statistically more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol and commit crime to feed those habits. Being in a prison is not a nice experience, being locked away from your family and friends, to be segregated with violent and abusive prisoners is not equal to the offence - smoking or growing weed for personal use for example.
If users of the milder drugs - amphets, hallucinogenics and marijuana - are sent into a rehabilitation or prison they are statistically more likely to develop a hard drug habit by being around a sort of people who use hard drugs regularly. The drug rehabilitation system is so unsuccessful that more soft drug users actually end up with a hard drug habit through going through rehab than hard drug users actually rehabilitated. The average statistic for successful long term drug rehabilitation is less than 20%, the system doesn't work, it only makes things worse. Police are forced to divert resources from serious crimes to deal with a guy with a weed plant in his cupboard or someone buying a couple of Es for a mate. I'll give you an example:
In Soho London several years ago a journalist was seen having a spliff out the back of a club, and the police were called. A van turned up with six officers to arrest the journalist and his friend, they then took them to the police station to charge them with use and possesion of cannabis (then a class B drug). At the same time two streets away from where the journalist was arrested a woman was beaten and murdered. The crime was reported as it was going on, but the police couldn't respond in time to save her because resources were immediately elsewhere. This caused a great deal of anger in the pro legalization community, but unfortunately fell on deaf ears when it came to the govornment.
Reports and researchers have studied users of soft and hard drugs in legal situations are far less likely to commit any crime. Those who use moderatly are just as likely to get a job and work as non drug users are, even heroin and cocain users! The system is so fucked up, and harmful to the economy, the public and public services (police, benefits agencies, courts, prisons etc).
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