Should people arrested for drug posession be sentenced to rehab instead of jail?

A million times yes.

I’d prefer it was legalized, regulated, taxed and accompanied with mandatory rehab, though.

@Grisaille I agree with legalizing marijuana, but I’m not too sure about legal crack. Although a lot of the prescription drugs being sold on the streets are as potent as crack..

Drug possession in terms of quantities for personal use- re hab. Ideally, legalization of some drugs would be better and probably not abused as much.

My daughter was caught at a drug-lab with $8,000 cash.
She was offered a 6 month rehab program, rather than the 3 month prison term. She figured she could dodge prison by faking rehab.
When she got there, she realized she couldn’t bluff them. They were tough on her, and she was now facing 6 months in jail if rehab failed.
She went through rehab, and came out clean, for the first time in 10 years.
She has been clean for the 6 years since.

JAIL rehab program in jail than MORE JAIL than release

How about JAIL for people who use THAN instead of THEN.

We’ve been doing it in CA for almost a decade.

Depends. Is the person addicted? Or are they just taking advantage of someone else’s addiction?

if it’s for possesion, rehab seems a better fit, and often times offenders are actually sent to rehab, it’s just not the standard response.

to be honest I don’t think drug use is severe enough to send a person to prison, where in many cases they will be physically and mentally abused by guards and other inmates.

Yes, but if they are using it won’t help either way!

@filmfann I’m behind you on that one 110%.

Neither. They should be hospitalized.

Both. So he’d get the help he needs, know what it’s like for the lives of people he is ruining, in case he’s pushing the drugs as well, and jailtime to pay for the criminal act.

Rehab first, then Jail so that they are aware to why they are in Jail, ‘cos no doubt that they stole to feed any habit.

@tyrantxseries: Why? So that we can waste more government money on paying for imprisoning these non-violent offenders for doing something that shouldn’t be illegal anyway and that the government could be making money off of instead?

@girlofscience
1— Drugs should not be legalized because there would be
an increase in drug abuse due to its availability. Once legalized,
drugs would become cheaper and more accessible to people who
previously had not tried drugs, because of the high price or the legal
risk. Drug abuse would skyrocket! Addicts who tend to stop, not by
choice, but because the drugs aren’t accessible would now feed the
addiction if drugs were made legal. These drug addicts would not be
forced to kick the habit due to the availability of the drug they
would partake eagerly. The temptation to use drugs would increase when
advertisements for cocaine, heroin and marijuana are displayed on
television. Instead of money used by employed addicts, you will see
welfare funds used to purchase drugs. If welfare funds were being
misused, this would cause a major problem in the economy.

2— Stoned driving and other dangers would be increased. Marijuana use isn’t truly a “victimless crime” when you consider all the crimes that may be committed when the user is under the influence of the drug. Drunk driving is still a major problem in our society despite all the education and stiff penalties. “Driving high” would be even harder to detect. Unless the user has been smoking in the car, there isn’t as distinctive of a smell as there is with alcohol. Also, there’s always the possibility that the lapse in judgment caused by drug use will lead to harder crimes like rape or robbery.

3— Some consider use of the drug as morally wrong. Many religions and moral codes prohibit the use of intoxicating substances. Marijuana is generally considered to fit into this category.

4— Legalization would increase the chances of the drug falling into the hands of kids. Even unhealthy legal items such as cigarettes and alcohol are prohibited from being sold to kids. This is because kids generally don’t exhibit the same reasoning, responsibility, and judgment of an adult. And their bodies aren’t as equipped to handle the intake of these substances. The problem is even worse for marijuana use. Developing brains and bodies can be dealt serious blows by the use of marijuana. Any time you make something legal, you increase the accessibility to children. All too often kids and teenagers get their hands on alcohol or cigarettes. We shouldn’t let the same thing happen with marijuana.

@tyrantxseries : I think you’re assuming a whole lot when trying to make your case. Prohibition does more to sell the thing that’s prohibited and the culture surrounding it than legalization does.

And before I’m accused, I’m currently someone who partakes of alcohol on roughly a twice a week basis. I take no other medications or mind-altering substances at all.

@tyrantxseries “All too often kids and teenagers get their hands on alcohol or cigarettes. We shouldn’t let the same thing happen with marijuana.”

Because kids don’t get their hands on marijuana now?

@tyrantxseries: Wow. I have to get to work, so I don’t have an opportunity to dissect your utterly insane arguments. But yeah man, I have to agree that marijuana really ups the rape and robbery rates. “Let’s smoke some weed, break into some bitch’s house, throw her down on the floor, rape the shit out of her and steal her jewelry!” Pretty typical MO.

@tyrantxseries I’m with you on this.
@girlofscience Your summation is absurd. Haven’t you been to parties where some girl has passed out, and there is a threat that someone will take advantage? In my experience, the threat is usually someone who is high.

@filmfann: Ummm…no, the threat is usually someone who is drunk. I have never ever ever heard of smoking marijuana making someone more likely to rape…wtf.

@girlofscience @tyrantxseries @filmfann Does anyone have any stats on the link between being high (from only marijuana) and violent crime such as rape? Cause yeah, I kind of made a face and shook my head when @tyrantxseries tried to correlate being stoned with rape.

Also, @tyrantxseries Pot should remain illegal because some people consider it morally wrong? Some people consider using electricity on Saturday, premarital sex, alcohol, wearing shorts, being gay, giving money to panhandlers, interracial marriage, not voting, and buying a purebred dog morally wrong too. Should those things be illegal? Legality or illegality should be based on how something benefits or harms individuals or a society, not on the morals of a select group of people.

@Likeradar – really good point. i’m pretty sure there’s no link between smoking weed and rape, if anything i have read that you’re less likely to commit a crime when you’re stoned.

i dunno, marijuana mellows you out. i can’t think of a bad experience i’ve ever had with it, and i haven’t heard of anyone else having a bad experience with it in any way either. but yet….you get caught with it and they toss you in jail with people who have MURDERED other human beings? yeah sounds fair

There was a girl who passed out at every party. Every party, she was put into one of the bedrooms, and she would wake up sans pants, and in a pool of cum. A guy I know used to say he only went to parties if he knew she was there. He wasn’t the only one at the party having sex with this passed out girl, and the party included a lot of pot smoking.
This is not a study. This is real life.

@filmfann Was there also alcohol at the party? Cocaine? Potato chips? Music?
The fact that there was a lot of pot at the party does not mean the pot had anything to do with this girl’s rape.

There were also many girls who passed out at my high school parties. There was a lot of weed there. The girls were put into bedrooms and were checked on by her friends. Then, we ate too much pizza and chips, laughed, told stupid jokes, and watched a movie. No one, as far as I know, was ever raped or violently attacked by someone who was under the influence of only marijuana.
This is not a study. This is real life.

So you are saying it didn’t happen at your party, so it never happens?

@filmfann I’m saying your story gives zero evidence to the assertion that there is a connection between weed and violent crime.

Pot being at a party where a girl was raped in no way means pot raises the likelihood of violent behavior.

I’d be interested in an actual study about violent tendencies in a frequent smoker, or a study about how often pot was the primary drug a violent criminal was under the influence of when the crime was committed. The story you told is purely coincidental.