Just wanted to post a story about my friend, that has opened my eyes. A friend of mine was given a life sentence for promising to manufacutre so many kilos of cocaine, the drugs were never manufactured, nor did he have the means to manufacture them. But because he had to prior posession charges, he was deemed " a danger to society, this man has undoubtly turned many people on to a life of addiction"-this is what the judge said about him. Now, I understand that yes he was wrong, however do we put the tobacco company and liquor company ceo's in jail? This products are just as harmful as drugs, and many people die as a result of these addictions. Yet we spend billions of dollars a year fighting the war on drugs,and what are the reuslts? People are given henious sentences without the chance for rehab first, shouldn't that be an option? Pedophiles and rapists will serve less time, shouldn't the punishment fit the crime? I'll get off the soapbox now, just needed to vent.

I feel that if you are caught with large amounts of drugs on your person, you should do time. (NOT as much as we are sentencing people too right now) Meaning, if you are selling drugs, I feel you should do time. If my boyfriend had been selling to other people, I wouldn't have a problem with him being incarcerated. In fact, I don't even know if i could have been in a relationship with him if thats what he was doing.
I feel that if you are an addict who is only hurting yourself-prison is not the answer.
Now, with that being said, I know there is a fine line there. I don't believe that all "dealers" should be in jail, but I do believe some should. My problem is that I think there are so many circumstances, that its hard to come up with a concrete "law". Did that make any sense at all??? LOL Cuz I don't think it did- I guess what I am trying to say is that so many people are in prison cuz of drugs. There are so many different "levels" of drug abusers. I do think some drug abusers should be in prison-ex:addicts who committ violent crimes, people who are known to be big time dealers, that type of thing.
Incarcerating someone for years because they have an addiction, and they haven't committed any major crimes outside of using, is insane.
Did that make a little more sense?
But I do agree with you on the cigarette thing. We are SO hypocritical! We sell cigarettes legally, knowing that people will die from them. But if someone is caught with a bag of weed, which will probably not kill anyone, they are locked up. How backwards is that?

It makes sense to me Jeni, and I agree!

Whole thin is just nutsy, IMHO. What aboutall those ads for Paxcil, etc? It doesn't matter f you DO drugs, it matters where the profits end up- according to the law in its majesty.

I agree, the war on people has gotten out of control. Until it touches enough influential people, it will not end because it is good politics to be "tough on crime".

I could write a book on this topic perhaps. But, as I sit here 8:40 pm EST 12 Police Officers are raiding 3 homes, 2 of my clients are sure to be there. The cost of this operation and the cost of prosecution and incarseration will be enormous. 3 of the people sure to be arrested are addicts, no criminal history that doesnt involve drug or alcohol use. The "War" on drugs is the biggest political failure in american history since Vietnam. Not a single educated and experieced person (educated in the Criminal Justice Field) would honestly disagree with this unles they are towing thier political line!

Ok, I was invited to "attend" this operation as my professional experience (perposally being fague) warranted thier deisire to have me there. Well, it's 1:03 am over 6 hours since the entry of these homes and my pager has not gone off. This means no arrest!! But, well over a few thousand in tax dollars for over time for no resultes. Guess what..they get good stats for their budget as they has a warrant, doesnt matter that they found no crime being committed after storming 3 homes.