Drug users aren't helped when they are thrown into jail, arrested, or ticketed. They need medical help for their disease and not violence. The war on drugs has failed to reduce the availability of drugs around the U.S. and the world, making them cheaper and more prevalent than ever.
The war on drugs has failed to keep communities safe and families together, with its goal of trying to keep drugs out of society. It's time for something new and that comes with decriminalization of those substances.
Just recently, Oregon moved to make that change and decriminalize penalties for the possession of hard substances.
They are the first state to make this move in the country.
The new changes in Oregon will offer individuals, who have been arrested with small amounts of hard drugs like heroin or cocaine etc, a chance to avoid going to trial or possibly ever seeing any jail time for their drug use. Instead, they would be given the option of paying a $100 fine and they'd need to get involved with an addiction recovery program.
People don't deserve to have their lives ruined and turned into criminals, locked in a cage, because of their personal drug use. Oregon is moving forward with something new so it will be interesting to see how it works out for them in the years to come and if other states are also going to follow in the same path.
One thing is obviously clear and that is that anyone still advocating for the drug war and criminalization of these substances seems to not only be unquestionably ignorant about these substances, but also unaware of the cost and complete failure that the drug war has become. Communities don't need to keep spending tens of thousands of dollars on policing personal drug choices when they've got more important things to worry about like cleaning up their drinking water, fixing roads or bridges, or helping any of the thousands of homeless men, women, and children, that are in need of basic necessities.
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