Would n’t it be cool if all drug were sound ? It ’s not just an idle question the 16 - year - sometime version of yourself asked – agroundbreaking reportfrom two of the world ’s lead human rights groups calls for states and the federal government to legalise drug use . Like , ALL drugs .
With the opioid epidemic corkscrew out of control – o.d. happenso ofttimes in public , even librarian are outfit with the overdose counterpoison Narcan – Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union argue that resources should be spent on treatment and prevention , rather than incarceration and sound battles .
It ’s not just opioids ; all illegal drugs , even marijuana in some State , are creating generations of people who will drop the majority of their life behind bar for even the slightest drug offensive . alternatively , the ACLU and HRW urge on the focus to shift to " bar and harm diminution . "
Jason Hoffman/Thrillist
" Until decriminalization has been achieved , " the study state , " we urge officials to take strong measures to downplay and mitigate the harmful issue of existing jurisprudence and insurance policy . The costs of the status quo , as this report card picture , are too keen to bear . "
Why is this a big deal?
The ACLU and HRW are n’t some rinky - drop shot activistic groups with name calling like " Druggies United . " They ’re immense human right field mathematical group with international influence , and they ’ve fundamentally said that the War on drug , declared during the Nixon administration , is rearward and wrong .
So , yeah . Those age in D.A.R.E. were a waste – the ACLU say so !
Jails are filled with drug offenders
To get an musical theme of just how fast-growing law are in catching drug offenders , someone is nab for monomania every 25 seconds in the US , according to the theme . This amounts to 1.25 million arrests a twelvemonth , and some 137,000 hoi polloi are in clink for drug self-command on any given Clarence Day .
Since prison overcrowding is already a major problem , specially in states like California and Texas , relieve up on drug offender , whoaccount for near 50 % of prisonersbehind bars , would help shorten taxpayer encumbrance and the societal price of displume families apart .
It costs people their futures
Aside from the laborious financial loading of trudging through the criminal justice system , which sure take a toll , the great unwashed accused of drug - related felony are essentially screwed for lifetime . After a felony conviction , people are barred from getting many jobs , housing , school , social welfare , voting , and more . It ’s hard to rehabilitate and start a new , clean life sentence if there are no choice for a effectual problem and affordable trapping , Human Rights Watch argues .
It doesn’t curb drug sales
Perhaps the most alarming statistic from the report is that four times as many masses are arrested for drug ownership as they are for selling drugs . For as much as drug laws were say to suppress drug sales ( and therefore drug usage ) , the people in reality selling them are n’t the 1 behind bars .
It ’s important to make a distinction here : The report call for decriminalization of druguse , not drugdistribution . In many cases , current insurance policy amount to prosecuting people suffer with addiction , and there ’s much more focal point on the criminal side of drug possession than on treatment and recovery .
The kicker is that none of this has helped break off drug use . In fact , global use of marijuana has gone up 9 % , cocaine 27 % , and opiates a thumping 35 % from 1998 to 2008,according to a UN estimate . So it sure does n’t seem like the drug warfare has deterred most mass from using ! They seem to bump dealer just fine , too .
The drug war is super lame for EVERYONE, not just people who use drugs
Drug arrests do n’t just impress the criminal judge system , but also taxpayers and the social fiber of the nation . The accused are predominantly people of color , and many of those who are convicted are find with tiny amounts of a give drug – in Texas alone , 78 % of people sentenced to jail for felony drug monomania had less than a gram . The result is that prisons are disproportionately make full with minorities who barely had any drug on them in the first berth .
Hopefully this secure call to natural action will have the government rethink how we process drug offender , and the toll its pickings . And maybe one day in the not - too - distant futurity , constitute a trial to the drugstore will have an only different meaning .
