Treat & Teach, Not Prisons for Profits –
April 24, 2019 – Treating drug users as criminals isn’t working, especially those in the cold grip of substance-use disorders. It’s expensive to arrest people, put them on trial and send them to prison. The return on investment appears to be nil, or negative. A stint in jail does nothing to help a drug user deal with their problems – health care in jails is lacking, for one – and a criminal record weighs heavily on efforts to get a job and rehabilitate one’s life. And the looming threat of criminal prosecution for drug possession scares people away from seeking help, while also encouraging dangerous behaviour, such as doing drugs alone.
Portugal decriminalized drugs in 2001. Drug use there has not spiked (the rate of cannabis usage among young adults is less than half that of Canada’s) and the drug-induced death rate is low, 0.4 in every 100,000 people in 2016. The rate in Europe that year was 2.2 for every 100,000. B.C.’s death rate in 2016 was shockingly higher – 20.9 per 100,000. Last year, it shot up to 31.3 per 100,000.
