I have described several ways to fight poverty, but I think the way that will help the most people in America is to combat drug abuse at its roots and not try to limit the effects only when people commit crimes. I would like to see a real war on drug producing nations. There are 23 countries the State Department has listed as not cooperative in the war on drugs, but not much is being done to put an end to drug lords who control whole sections of nations like Colombia. And even after a regime change in Afghanistan, drug lords control one third of the territory even while 20,000 American troops are there, we put a government in place that has no control over much of the nation. And in those unknown regions is where Osama Bin Laden is expected to be hiding, yet while we overthrew the Taliban we have not been so bold against these drug lords.
Given this consistent inaction against major producers of drugs I still believe a lot of changes must be made in American drug policy if we want to combat drug use and poverty here at home. The American Medical Association has clearly stated that addiction is a medical condition and should be treated as one. This flies in the face of our criminal approach to fighting drugs. Enforcement of trafficking and distributing drugs should be punished as harshly as possible by law, but people in possession and using drugs should be put into treatment not jail.
Treatment is the way to deal with addiction, and possibly the only way to prevent continuous repeat offenders. Currently these people get little more than an arrest on their record because the jails are too crowded, and they leave the police station to get high again and the problem worsens. Addicts need treatment as soon as possible to prevent their lives and their health from spiraling out of control to the point where they commit more and more serious crimes in order to continue their addictive behavior. Addiction is a medical problem that needs a medical solution to stop people from becoming involved in drug related crimes before they start.
There are over 2 million people in jail; jails are at 121% of capacity. And hundreds of thousands of these people come and go in this jail system due to drug related crime. And for every person in jail above normal capacity the cost is dramatically higher. We could save our government a lot of money by reducing the number of people in jails, and this money could more than cover the cost of treating addicts which would save the government more and more money in the future with less people committing crimes, less people in jail and less cases in overloaded courts. There is also a strong financial reason for the government that comes from making addicts into productive members of society rather than criminals. Not only could they pay taxes, they could also lift families out of poverty where the government subsidizes their food, housing, etc.
The best reason for treatment to be given to addicts rather than or combined with jail time is what so many of our government sponsored anti drug commercials lay out for us, the people who are hurt most by addicts are their families. When people become addicts they are not earning money to support themselves, their spouses, their children. They are taking money from their families and using it to escape into a high. Many addicts are people who would be contributing to their family, providing an income in a family where there is nothing but government assistance keeping them alive, or providing a second income that would help their family out of poverty altogether. Not to mention providing a parent to children who don’t get enough love and guidance and who might otherwise fall into that path of drug use and drug related crime.
Choosing to treat addiction as a medical condition first is a real way to reach into the lives of the disenfranchised in America and give them hope. Show them that their government is working for them and that the government believes they can succeed and wants to work with them to make it happen. Poverty and drug abuse are linked in a vicious circle and America can break that cycle providing millions of people the opportunity for the “pursuit of happiness” that is fundamental to Americans and that has so long been denied them. |
