And Marijuana is the drug that comes up the most in many localities according to a recent federal study. The feds are claiming this fact means we need to “divert” more arrestees to drug treatment, but unwilling participants in a program won’t reap the benefits of sobriety. People will stop using when they’re ready to stop using, which usually means they have to hit rock bottom.
Frankly nothing says rock bottom like a bid in the joint.
Otherwise though the study illustrates the point I often make, that pot smokers are NO DIFFERENT from any other user or addict, including alcoholics. Pot doesn’t magically make you kinder, calmer and wiser, it gets you high and high people are a danger to themselves and those around them. At the very least the dedicated pothead is like the alcoholic, a drain on those around them that spend their time propping him or her up while thy dwell in perpetual adolescence.
Half of the men arrested in 10 U.S. cities test positive for some type of illegal drug, a federal study found.
Not only do the findings show “a clear link between drugs and crime,” they also highlight the need to provide drug treatment, says Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which will make the data public Thursday.
Assessing offenders for drug and mental health problems and providing treatment is “important if you want to stop recidivism and recycling people through the system,” says Kerlikowske, who supports drug courts that offer court-ordered drug treatment.
“There’s an opportunity when someone is arrested to divert them to treatment if they need it,” says Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance Network, a group that supports legalizing marijuana and treating drug use as a public health issue. “But people shouldn’t have to get arrested to get treatment.”
I’m not sure about all that. When we say alcoholism or addiction is a disease or illness we’re using a metaphor to equip addicts with what is often a psychological and emotional struggle to ween themselves off of a crutch they’ve used to keep reality at a distance. Addicts need to accept responsibility for themselves, including their recovery which is why diversion programs aren’t going to work on many, but like I said a few years in the joint will.
Here’s an interesting fact from the study:
In 2008 researchers interviewed and obtained urine samples from 3,924 men arrested in 10 metropolitan areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, New York, Portland, Ore., Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
In Chicago, 87% tested positive for drug use and in Sacramento, 78% tested positive. Many of the men — 40% in Chicago and 29% in Sacramento — tested positive for more than one drug.
Marijuana is the most common drug in every city where testing was done except Atlanta, where cocaine is most prevalent, the study found.
Methamphetamine use is concentrated on the west coast where 35% of the men arrested in Sacramento and 15% of the men arrested in Portland tested positive for the drug.
Heroin use is highest, at 29%, among men arrested in Chicago, an increase from 20% in 2007. Heroin use among arrestees declined in Portland, from 12% in 2007 to 8% in 2008.
Positive drug tests declined since 2007 among men arrested in Atlanta, Portland and Washington, the study found. Some of that decline can be attributed to law changes, Kerlikowske says.
Portland passed laws restricting access to ingredients needed to make methamphetamine, Kerlikowske says.
But I thought pot smokers were different than other addicts. How could this be? Is it possible that pot is indeed a gateway drug; that once you’re high on one drug it’s less likely you’ll turn down a line of this or that? Hmmm.
The article goes on to demand treatment for these poor criminals, without ever telling you exactly what crimes they were arrested for. The Office of National Drug Control Policy is coy about the criminal history of the study sample in their report (pg 27)Â but you can read through all the stats on these people’s lives and see that drug use is really a drain on those around them.
In the press release the O.N.D.C.P has this to say about pot smokers:
 Marijuana is the most commonly detected drug at the time of arrest. The percentage of arrestees testing positive for marijuana ranges from just under a third in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. to about half in Charlotte. Additionally, arrestees who are using marijuana use it frequently: in seven of the cities, marijuana users used the drug on average every other day during the past month.
That’s a lot of getting high. But since pot is “harmless” I guess that’s O.K. right?
Who did not know that Pot smoking was addictive and a drug? I mean the only ones who really hop up and down saying oh people who smoke weed never do this or that are the ones who smoke likely have a problem or a start of one and just have not accepted it yet so they are still trying to rationalize and justify as much as they can.
Yea whatever I do not care what drug you do be it processed man made or organically grown by the “hippie” down the farm who also makes and sells hemp clothes. It is still a drug People Still use it to try and numb themselves to Not have to face and deal with life. Eventually it will alter your thinking and you will find yourself making stupid choices. plain and simple. While it may not be as bad as Meth or coke or heroine It still causes poor choices and stupid actions on the part of the user.
Those who have used it for years and have not been to jail that does NOT mean you do not have an addiction it simply means you have managed to at least be functional.
I could not have said that better myself. People do numb themselves with pot and even if pot wasn’t habit forming (which it is) that self-medicating behavior is itself addictive.
Driving drunk should be a crime, not drinking. CRIMINALS should be in jail, not victimless “criminals”. Marijuana regulation needs to be based on scientific studies and reason, not opinion or emotions. Although studies are banned, current research rates marijuana as less addictive than Tylenol and less harmful than alcohol. There have been 0 deaths from marijuana overdose, but alcohol poisoning is very easy to reach. Cigarettes are highly addictive. Marijuana is banned for philosophical reasons and opinion. Marijuana has been banned even for scientific study in the US. Highly addictive drugs like cocaine, the person no longer has the ability to decide, it is so addictive they are not autonomous decision makers. We are talking about autonomous decision makers, what adults do in their own privacy and homes.
“drug war” is as absurd as “war on terror”. We don’t have the resources or the right to go into foreign nations to tell them how to live their lives, or into peoples homes. We should lead by example, by education. People should be taught to do the right thing, is it moral if you only do something or else you will get whacked in the head? as soon as the whacker is gone the person will go doing that. Statistics show the drug war is not effective, economically or in its results. Marijuana use is very prevalent, and the “drug war” doctrine is not working.
Prisons are overflowing, US has highest criminal rate, HUGE unbalanced budget and national deficit. We have more important things to do.
Literally more than 25% of “criminals” are probably in there because of marijuana, or especially with “victimless crimes”. The punishment should be proportional to the crime. Lose all professional licenses, after going to school, because of recreational use of something you do in your own private time?
We have better things to do with our time, bigger fish to fry. mmmm fish sounds good haha
“victimless criminals”. We lose a productive working member of society, and other working people must pay taxes for a victimless “criminal” to sit in jail, instead of spending money on research, education, or treatment.
The total number of marijuana arrests for 2000 far exceeded the combined number of arrests for violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
Wow. The stupid….it burns.
A drug is a drug is a drug. You want to know the gateway drug? It’s Alcohol kids. You can even drink it at Church. It’s in every grocery store. When you’re loaded your more likely to hurt someone, hurt yourself, or do things you wouldn’t normally do like try other illicit substances or sleep with someone you wouldn’t normally look twice at.
All this talk about Pot being a “good” drug or a “bad” drug is a fools argument. It’s a drug. It’s a drug that’s able to be grown JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE. That’s something a capitalist system hates. They don’t want you making your own drugs, they want you to buy the drugs THEY want you to buy because THEIR friends profit from.
It’s all a bullshit shellgame that I’m surprised so many otherwise intelligent adults can’t seem to see through. The argument is a sham. You telling me the same people selling me cigarettes and big macs, who only recall a car they know has problems only when the costs of deaths outweigh the profits instead of fixing the damn problem, are going to be guardians of my health? I’m supposed believe the same system that sells Enzyte even though the founder went to jail for fraud and for selling a fraudulent worthless product?
Guys, it’s wake up time here. You all talk about seeing through the MAN’s manipulations and getting ready for the great day of the rope, but you buy into and participate in this con?
Wake the fuck up. You been had. When the pope says he’s above American law and he’s church can rape all the kids they want without paying for it, you’ve got bigger fish to fry than worrying about the asshole smoking pot next door.