When we quit using the criminal justice system to solve our drug problem, the changes in AMERICA and AMERICAN life will be profound.
Neighborhoods will be much safer. Neighborhoods that you wouldn’t think of walking through today will come back to AMERICAN life when there are no drug dealers fighting to keep their turf.
Property crime like burglary, car theft, and robbery will fall to unprecedented levels. Our police officers won’t have to worry that the next person they stop might just as well try to shoot them because they are felons who have nothing to lose because they know they will be going back to prison for a long time. Police officers will have time to engage in community policing; developing relationships with citizens which may allow them to get involved in tough situations before someone turns to violence.
Families will start to heal. Families who are missing a brother, sister, son, daughter, mom, dad, grandparent, aunt or uncle who are incarcerated or overdosed will know that the likelihood of losing another family member is now remote. Families who have not suffered the loss of an immediate family member can breathe easier because that terrible loss is much less likely. Wondering how an addict affects family life? Click here
Taxes or the national debt will go down because providing the best care in the world to addicts will cost almost nothing compared to the cost of locking up two million AMERICANS.
Treatment programs that hardly every worked when drugs were prohibited may become very effective because now the addict will have hope. While drugs are illegal, no program could offer hope because having a conviction or even just an arrest on your record meant you wouldn’t get a fair chance when applying for a job or even applying to rent an apartment.
Many addicts will become productive members of the economy even while still working on their addiction rather than a drag on the economy.
The number of babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) will fall. There will be fewer of these babies born after being exposed to drugs in the womb because the mothers can get help without fear of arrest.
This new vision of AMERICA will include many other positive changes that we can’t even imagine while we are living in the punishment paradigm.
I want that AMERICA. I can’t do this alone. I will need a lot of help. Will you help?