It’s better and more productive to treat people with drug addictions, not punish them. That seems to be a guiding principle among a growing number of governments in the United States.
This blog has discussed Portugal’s decision to decriminalize small amounts of many drugs. If police find people with these substances, they direct the people to commissions that assesses their drug use. These commissions could help people find treatments such as placement at drug rehab centers instead of sending them jail, where they might have ended up in the past.
While the United States federal government has not officially decriminalized drugs, some U.S. localities are treating drugs and drug users differently than they have in the past. In Houston and Harris County Texas, the area’s district attorney, law enforcement, and legal authorities are decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana. People with fewer than four ounces of marijuana attend drug-education classes instead of facing criminal charges.
In other areas across the United States, a number of authorities are shifting the focus from punishing drug users to helping them. Some cities allow people to turn themselves into law enforcement agencies so they can help the users find proper treatment.
Some of these arrangements with local police departments reserve places in rehab centers so addicts can find immediate help. This is important, because many addicts say that they can’t stay sober for long on their own. Addiction is also a progressive disease, people’s addictions will likely worsen the longer their conditions are left untreated.
These developments, of course, coincide with the legalization of medical marijuana in several countries and many U.S. states and the decision by some states to legalize limited amounts of the drug for recreational purposes.
Many of these developments are new, so we don’t know how effective they’ve been or will be in the short or long term. But if we’re truly fighting a war on drugs, shouldn’t we be battling addiction and not the users themselves?
