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[deleted] t1_j5z8lws wrote

Reply to comment by drpvn in New York's Bill to Decriminalize Low-Level Drug Possession by greenhousecrtv

[deleted]

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drpvn t1_j5z8xlt wrote

> No it doesn’t.

>They spend a few days at rikers, get let out, and do it again.

So you arrest them again. We have over 30,000 cops that we pay salaries.

The best policy, in my view, would be to arrest people who use in public and offer them a choice of treatment or jail. Like how they do it in Portugal.

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fafalone t1_j61ify0 wrote

> Like how they do it in Portugal.

That's not how it works in Portugal. They're required to undergo an evaluation but enrolling in treatment is optional.

Because compelled treatment is useless and nothing but a waste of money with little benefit over jail.

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YaBoiChibi123 t1_j5zd7tu wrote

If you’re gonna bring up European model of drug therapy then you should also bring up sites where people can use recreational drugs safely.

Criminalizing drug use literally does nothing but makes the users worse criminals. It literally just inflates the NYPD/prison budget to a level that is unnecessary

Either genuinely offer these people treatment or do nothing (and I quite literally mean do nothing). Those two options are profoundly better options than just throwing people in jail

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drpvn t1_j5zdzre wrote

I would support injection sites if it were coupled with a form of coercive treatment. Normalizing public hard drug use is a bad thing for a society.

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YaBoiChibi123 t1_j5zelaf wrote

You wanna know what’s worse for society?

Throwing people in jail for drug charges. Those people won’t be able to find good jobs after leaving and will have to become hardened criminals during their stay in order to survive. That outcome is 10x worse for society than a junkie who uses some weird shit recreationally.

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drpvn t1_j5zfutb wrote

They won't find good jobs when they're dead or incapacitated from their drug habit, either.

I really do believe the best way to deal with this is Portugal's approach. But it seems like a nonstarter because it involves both policing (which the progressives don't like) and investments in treatment and safe use sites (which conservatives and many moderates don't like).

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fafalone t1_j61io9k wrote

They're most likely to maintain housing and employment when enrolled in heroin maintenance programs. No other program is more successful in that regard, especially not compelled treatment (which isn't what Portugal does), which has a success rate in the 1% or less range.

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drpvn t1_j61kr7e wrote

I mean coerced treatment in the sense that if you reject services, there are consequences to that. They don’t automatically toss you in jail if you reject services, but you can be required to do community service or pay fines.

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