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Hot-Hat-4913 t1_j610hgg wrote

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

Putting people in jail because they fell into addiction is a bad move. It costs a ton of money and all but ensures those people will be unemployable when they eventually get out of prison which just leads to even more problems.

If someone is engaging in hard drug use, the only compassionate and fiscally sane approach is to do whatever can be done to get them off drugs. Throwing them in jail when the only thing they've done wrong is become addicted to something—often as a result of depression or another mental health problem—is cruel and pointless. If they're a danger to other people, sure, you need to use force, but this is often not the case.

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fafalone t1_j61i7di wrote

Compelled treatment is useless. The best approach from a fiscal perspective and external harm perspective is to provide their substance of choice until they're ready to quit. This eliminates property crime, reduces other crimes committed, dramatically reduces ODs, and results in them being far more likely to maintain housing and employment, in addition to defunding gangs and cartels.

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actionguy87 t1_j63t9vi wrote

Meanwhile hard drugs become so easy to get that instances of addiction skyrocket. Normalizing drug use is NOT the solution to helping addicts. If I were an addict caught in the vicious cycle of addiction, I'd pray everyday that someone would scoop me up and tie my ass to a bed until everything was out of my body. A system that actively ENABLED my addiction would be a waking nightmare.

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supermechace t1_j639l6p wrote

The problem for NYC is that much like homelessness and migrants, other states will shift their problem populations to NYC to handle the cost.

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Hot-Hat-4913 t1_j620zq2 wrote

I agree. Opiate addicts can often hold a job and live fairly normal lives if they have affordable access to drugs and if the drugs are what they're claimed to be. So much money and so many lives are wasted on the war on drugs.

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supermechace t1_j63af5j wrote

US definitely messed up on war on drugs, but it's actually other countries ways of outsourcing their criminal elements to the US to deal with(or in some cases destabilize and profit off the US). They're protected by borders as the US would prioritize business interests rather than taking nations to task. Gateway drugs lead users to abuse harder substances helping users to eventually become a burden on community.

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