Re: [DIV28] [] !! Honolulu Star-Bulletin : Cayetano Says State Should Treat, Not Incarcerate <fwd>

[Guest guest]

--- Begin Forwarded Message ---

> CAYETANO SAYS STATE SHOULD TREAT, NOT INCARCERATE, DRUG OFFENDERS

> He said he was inspired by California voters' passage last month of

> Proposition 36, which requires treatment instead of jail or prison for

> first-or second-time nonviolent drug offenders.

So will he build treatment centres instead of schools instead?

> He said drug addiction is an illness.

However, not every first-time offender is addicted by any means, and

most certainly not any person who ever used drugs, all of whom could

get unlucky and be arrested for drug possesssion at any time.

> " It doesn't discriminate -- it affects all social classes, " Cayetano

>said.

Well often someone from a minority gets a good job too. Do we conclude

from this that employers never discriminate? In reality, social class

has a considerable impact on drug use. However, as this undermines the

notion of an illness " in the person " rather than as resulting at least

partly from sociual factors, this fact is not only routinely ignored

but actively contradicted by those who propose that view. I think

scarcely in the history of social policy is there a myth more

fallacious, more heavily propogated, less frequently challenged.

Pete Watts

" History despite it's wrenching pain,

Cannot be unlived,

but if faced with courage,

need not be lived again " . Maya Angelou 1993

--- End Forwarded Message ---

Pete Watts

" History despite it's wrenching pain,

Cannot be unlived,

but if faced with courage,

need not be lived again " . Maya Angelou 1993

[Guest guest]

Pete,

Do you have a url or general source for the " DrugNews Comment? "

Thanks.

Jim

> --- Begin Forwarded Message ---

>

> DrugNews Comment:

> Prediction: " Treatment Not Incarceration " will turn out to be even

worse

> than Prohibition. " Treatment not incarceration " as national policy

risks

> yet greater justification and public approval for stigmatising and

removing

> from society those whose personal choices involve politically-

incorrect,

> un-American drugs, and doing so in a way that seems " medical, " and

> scientifically-justified. " Until these sick are cured, and can

accept to

> live in the real world of responsibilities and duties, we will out

of the

> good of our own hearts ensure that they get the treatment they

need, for as

> long as it takes, " seems a far more dangerous collective mind-set

than

> " lock then up so they will know of our disapproval. " The lack of

success

> for " addiciton treatment " noted by many researchers will merely

confirm the

> necessity to continue to demonise drug users ad infinitum, as the

> " treatments " will accomplish little save to pacify the public and

political

> conscience of the nation. " Even with our best and most expensive

> treatments, they do not become cured. " The Therapeutic State looms

ever

> larger in America, let us be warned:

>

> " The therapeutic state is a totalitarian state - all the more so

> for masking its tyranny as therapy. "

> -- Szasz

>

[Guest guest]

> Pete,

> Do you have a url or general source for the " DrugNews Comment? "

> Thanks.

> Jim

Alas no. I got it off the APA Div28 list. I expect a google search

will find something. Good luck..

P.