Did you know that the federal government only spends 20% of the $17 billions allocated to the drug-control budget that funds drug and alcohol treatment? Also, research from the ndsn.org says that every dollar invested in drug treatment can save $7 in both societal and medical costs.  

Stepping away from the monetary parts of this issue, Craig Love (Brown University researcher) did a study on women substance abusers in jail. He found that the 25% that went to treatment were rearrested later, while 62% of the women released without treatment were later rearrested. So, speaking to the commenter that said most drug users relapse, I think this shows that although relapses do happen, treatment is a lot more effective than sending drug offenders to jail. 

Sadly enough, I feel that the public is the problem in this issue. 84% of Americans think that in order to better control drug addiction, we need tougher criminal penalties. I do not think they understand that this is not helping the drug offenders, and if they realized this, they would probably change their opinions a bit. 

I know this ONE post covered a large variety of topics within my the treatment vs. jail issue, but I feel like they are all very important and all tie in together somehow. I would like to leave one last thought in your heads though. My researched has made me realize that there are very few treatment centers when it comes down to it, and if all the offenders were to be put into treatment instead, there would not be enough centers. As is, only 15% or people that need treatment actually get it. In order to really consider putting into effective the suggestions I have given, we need tons more treatment centers. I think that society would be immensely impacted by this change, and now more than ever, with all of the job cuts, I think it is time to set up some more treatment centers!

Sending these offenders to jail would punish them for their actions, but would not help them in any way in carving out a path for a better future. Many different articles mentioned how jail time would get people to think about their actions for a couple of weeks after getting out of jail, and they would then be back to their old habits. With treatment, though, these offenders would be gaining knowledge and help that could get them clean and give them goals to look forward to. This is important for all offenders futures including: mothers, fathers, young kids, athletes, etc. 

The emotional and social skills that would be taught at the treatment centers would allow them to fit into a clean society, where they need to be. It would help them to think more highly of themselves and see how much their actions play into the whole society. To me, one of the biggest reasons this needs to happen is to give mothers, single or left to raise their kids pretty much on their own, self-worth and the knowledge of how much impact they have on their kids’ lives. I think often times they do not understand how much their actions are looked up to by their children, and this causes the drug use to be passed on to them. Treatment centers would be extremely empowering to drug offenders rather than jails that do not help them in any way with their drug use, or the problems that could be causing them to use in the first place. They promote a lifestyle change instead of a quick fix that is not really fixing anything.

While researching drug issues, I came across the Drug Policy Alliance Network website. I immediately found an article on another aspect of the treatment vs. jail issue. People in the U.S.A. are usually most concerned with issues that affect them, however the current drug cartels in Mexico have people here afraid to cross the border. Mexico has always been a bit unsafe, but now people completely avoid going to Mexico due to their current drug problems. And, if we are that scared to go down there, imagine the situation for people who LIVE in the country.

In “Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift,” a report issued by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, they basically stated that the United States, paired with the European Union, accounted for the greatest consumption of illegal drugs in the world. That is a really sad statement, and it made me realize that we, along with the European Union, are a huge part of the reason why Mexico’s drug cartels have gained so much power. Do people who buy drugs and use them in the U.S. know how greatly they are influencing this business in Mexico? Do they care that innocent people are dying down there because of the drug trading they are participating in? I think either they do not fully understand, or they are so selfish and greedy that they do not care about anything but themselves, and getting their drug fixes. 

What can we do in order to help fix this problem? Well, we can start by changing our policies a little. Most notably, like the report said, the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy thinks we ought to do a better job of taking the correct steps to reduce domestic drug consumption. A way that we could do this would definitely be to send people into treatment rather than jail so they come out clean. Jail is punishing them for the time being, but we need to help these other countries, as well as our own, and actually get people to stop using drugs completely. Jail is clearly not having this effect on drug offenders, so we need to change the system.

The Treatment Solutions Network says that down the road, this change will save millions of dollars, but making the transition into the new system is what is going to be really difficult. People never want to be the ones that have to deal with an increased tax or a drawing of money from another area, but that is what is going to have to occur if we want to start this system up. I really think people need to focus more on how much this is going to help our society in the long run rather than just thinking of the money they are going to have to contribute to get it up and running.

One way that I feel we could get money to help fund the starting of this program is through making the use of marijuana legal, but taxed. I feel that the use of this drug has become very high, in a way showing the nation that it needs to be legalized. I think that we should take it for what it is worth and use the taxes on this drug to help pay for treatment centers that will treat drug offenders that are addicted to much more deadly and damaging drugs. I know that this is pushing it a bit, however I have heard a lot of talk in California about possibly legalizing marijuana and taxing it in order to help the economy, and I think this would be a great idea for Nevada to play off.

Because of drugs ability to take over one’s life, I think a whole new door is opened in the issue of whether or not drug abusers should be sent to jail or treatment. Thinking of families, I think it is essential that mothers and fathers who are caught doing drugs be sent directly to treatment so they can get better and raise their families. Sending them to jail would do a great deal of harm and, thinking of the long-term effects, take away their abilities to raise their children. Children are innocent and unable to control their parents and living situations. If treatment centers were to pass in the place of serving jail time, I think numerous parents would be set on the right track so they could go back to their children and raise them in a good environment, with good values and examples to follow.

Like it has been said time after time, the sooner one gets help, the sooner they will get better. Senator Reid, I think you need to consider the way that sending drug offenders to jail is affecting families. Sending them to treatment would not only help them get their life on track, but it would also play a huge part in family issues that are very prevalent in Las Vegas. Sending them to jail and then allowing them to return home to raise their kids seems absolutely preposterous. Jail time might give them some time to think about their actions, but they need actual help before being trusted raising their kids in drug-free environments. I think the failure to think about this issue is greatly contributing to the amount of drug abuse by kids who continue abusing into their adult years. If we want to see change in the future, we need to look at the source of the problem and do something to fix it.

Drugs are definitely not something that everyone does, so I think forming bonds with other drug addicts and dealers would be very beneficial. This being said, I think it would be ESPECIALLY beneficial since they would all be in a place receiving treatment for these problems. If the treatment centers were really good ones and were adamant about getting the offenders clean, I feel these bonds would be especially essential ones in the whole process. I know that peers have influenced me a ton in the past and continue to do so, which is probably true with offenders too.

For this process to work without negative consequences (not allowing each others to recover) I think that the patients need to have an initial period in which they receive intense therapy and cannot be around others. After this period is over, they would then be able to start with clean slates and get to know the other people in the facility who are at the same stage as they are. I think this system will allow them a strong support group as well as the knowledge that other people have been through and gotten through the same sort of things that they have.

http://www.treatment-centers.net/drug-treatment-programs.html

The link above is to a treatment website that I feel does a great job of engaging people thinking about getting treatment for drug use. I think it would be a great example for what the treatment centers that people are sent to rather than jail, should be like.

Sending drug offenders to jail is also detrimental to society because not only are the offenders not scared to go to jail anymore, but they are also seen in a more powerful light. After they get out of jail, they are seen as “harder” by their peers. This is causing the jail system to be relatively useless in trying to eliminate drug offenses. 

If the drug offenders were instead forced to go to treatment, they would not be surrounded by criminals who carried out more violent offenses. Then, they would not be seen as “hard” by their peers because they would be getting treated, not toughened up by the jail atmosphere. Also, they would be among groups of people with the same problems so they could focus on the ways drugs could mess up their lives, and they could give each other much-needed support. Treating criminals instead of having them in jail would help the drug problem be fixed rather than just paused until they get out of jail.

Now, Harry Reid, I think this information is extremely important to consider. If drug abusers were taken at an early stage, say, their teens, and put into treatment facilities after they were caught for doing drugs, I think a lot of them would be able to reform their lives for the better. I think that starting the program with everyone right now would be way to hard, so I propose that we put into action something that sends this generation of teens (and follows them as they grow up) to treatment facilities rather than to jail. I think this will help control both the overcrowding of jails and it will lessen the amounts of crime because those who turn from drug abuse to crime will be treated at early stages, hopefully causing them to change their futures into productive ones, void of crime. 

On the Atlanta Recovery Center website, one of the headlines really caught my attention and made me think for a while. It said “Is Not Having a Jail Alternative Leading Us toward a Society of Prisoners?” This brings a huge point across. Jails are made to punish people and to get them to think about the bad decision they made so when they get out, they do not make the same mistake again. But, issues such as drug abuse need treatment. Some of these people need help with their problems, and all our society is doing is putting them in jail which just makes them angrier with the world. Plus, if they are in there long enough, they have to basically start their lives from scratch when they get out. How hard would it be for you to start with nothing and get money, necessary items to live, a house, a car, and everything else that most people grow up with? I think many of them turn to drugs to get quick money because it is so hard to find jobs having been in jail. If they were to be treated at treatment centers instead, they would have an optimistic outlook upon getting out and hopefully help planning out a bright, productive future that no longer involved drugs.

Many people think that drug abuse is something that is in a person’s mind, something they can control and choose to do or not to do. I, however, believe that one could say that about anything. You make up your mind with everything you do, but these drug addicts need help. They no longer are able to judge what is right and they cannot see that they need help. Like Representative Jay Neal says in this video, if you actually go and speak with these drug abusers in a treatment center, you will see that something else is going on in their mind. They honestly need help.

Representative Neal also addresses the issue of the cost of treatment. As I alluded to in my first post and he spoke about in this video, people with drug addiction problems often end up back in jail within two years. What does this mean? Well, if people continue going back to jail, taxpayers have to continue to pay money to keep them in jail. Why not spend that money on getting them better? Treatment centers instead of jail for nonviolent, drug abuse crimes seem so perfect for this matter. It would better society, the person, and the future of our nation.

Representative Jay Neal also touches on the money issue. He says it will cost less money to put drug offenders in treatment rather than put them in jail time and time again with no results. He gave the statistic that every dollar spent in certain programs saves $12 that would have been used in jail. To not put people who need treatment in treatment is costing us. We should be placing people in a place where they can learn and get better especially if it costs less than putting them in a place where they are not going to learn anything about their problem. I think Representative Neal makes a lot of points that people need to take into consideration. He gave all of the statistics that show non-violent drug offenders are not benefitting from jail, as well as the monetary side to why it would be better to put these kind of offenders in a treatment center. When all the facts are laid out for us, why would we choose the more flawed method that is little by little breaking apart our society?

As a resident of Henderson, Nevada, I have a lot of trust in the Senator, and believe that he is a man who will push for an idea when he feels that it is a good one. So, speaking directly to Senator Harry Reid, I would like to ask that it be taken into consideration that drug abusers be sent into a mandatory treatment facility that is funded by the government. Rather than spending money on sending drug abusers to jail, I think it would be much more effective and beneficial for their futures and society’s future if they were placed in treatment facilities.

As I saw in the film, people who enter into jail are often doomed to go back time and time again after their initial stay. I just recently thought about the reasoning for this. One of the ladies on the film was discussing how many times she had gone back to jail for using, which was a lot. She answered by saying it was really hard to build a life after getting out of jail, especially if you do not have friends and family to count on. The jail releases you with only $10 and a bus pass which is setting them up for failure. They are left to rebuild their lives from the ground up. For people already coming from a bad situation, this is not the way to release them back into society.

It is no doubt doing our whole society an enormous disservice, and no one is taking time to revamp this system. Of course there are other big issues that have to be dealt with, but people are suffering from this easily fixable issue in numerous ways as well. Going to school in Las Vegas, at a school about two miles from the strip (not the best area in town), the kids I went to school with were sent to jail for drug abuse weekly. One day they would be in class, the next they would not. People always knew why they disappeared, but for them it was just a way of life, and coming from less well-off families, most of these kids were taught from an early age by their friends that drug dealing and drug using was a way out. It was a way they could relieve their pain and make as much money as people in jobs they believed they would never be able to hold made. Now, I would be okay with these people being sent back to jail for drugs every time they were caught, but I saw changes occur in all of these people that have helped me to better understand exactly why we need to send them into treatment rather than jail. Many people turn violent after they get out of jail their first time. Whether it be from the people they had to be in jail with or other factors, I saw it happen to almost all of them. I know that my school and peers were not that much different from locations across the country, and after also seeing this video on the issue, I feel that sending drug users/dealers to jail is furthering our societal problems. With this in mind, I hope Senator Harry Reid can help me in taking steps to give these people futures and making changes that force these abusers to be sent into treatment rather than jails that are unfit for them. I hope to have this issue addressed first in Nevada, with other states following after they see the good outcome of the new system.