Quote:
Originally Posted by Xist
Thank you for clarifying. It sounded like you felt cocaine was adequately harmless. There are interesting arguments against convicting people solely for possession of drugs. It is good they are required to break their addictions, but I am not sure prison is a healthy environment to prepare people to return to society.
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I've never clearly stated my position on drugs before. I'm not knowledgeable enough to strongly advocate anything because I've never tried an illicit drug and don't have a good sense for what demons people face who are on them (and what they are trying to escape).
It seems crazy that people even try drugs like meth for the first time. I mean, how many stories do we have where people had miserable unsuccessful lives that quickly turned around after they picked up a meth habit? Zero. Why try something that is proven to only cause misery, which costs a lot of money, and which you're not already addicted to? See, this is why I cannot speak intelligently on the subject, as I can't identify with addicts at all.
That said, people generally are not rehabilitated by prison. I got lucky in that my sentence was short (13 months), and I'm not the type to give into peer pressure or care if I fit in. In a sense, I viewed my incarceration as a behavioral observer rather than part of a group of social outcasts.
Prison is appropriate for dangerous people, or those most likely to defraud or otherwise menace society.
Rehabilitation and reconciliation with society is what is most needed because people must belong to groups. They either feel like a contributing member of society, or they feel outcast from society and part of a downtrodden group of rebels. If they don't feel accepted by society, then they have no shame in burdening it.