Doctor Joshua Kane, the head of research at A Better Today Recovery Services and Lecturer at Arizona State University closes out The War on Drugs series having left off with The War on Drugs, Part 5 – Criminalizing Illegal Drug Use for Profit.
Freedom and Equality
“We have more people currently in jail on drug crimes than the nations of England, France, Germany, and Japan combined have in jail for all crimes. Does this sound like freedom America?” Kane questions while explaining that while we have so many in jail on drug charges, the law doesn’t always hold everyone to the same standards.
“Trey Radel, a congressman in Florida, led the charge to drug test welfare recipients in Florida. He got it passed. Some months later Trey Radel was found with an ounce of Cocaine in his car. This is the hypocrisy of the War on Drugs,” Kane continues.
“Trey Radel got a deferred judgment, he never got jail time and within months the charge was completely expunged from his record.”
Since Florida started drug testing its welfare recipients less than 1 percent have tested positive for having drugs in their system.
Solutions
“What we need to do is decriminalize drug use. We need to realize that drug use is not an inner-city phenomenon. We know this yet we don’t apply it to our politics or our policies.”
Drugs are used in every community, and they can and will affect any one, regardless of his or her status in society.
“Addicts are just as likely to be – your doctor, your sibling, your child, your friend – as they are an inner-city citizen. The War on Drugs is a war on us all”, Kane explains.
Drug abuse needs to be stopped, but can only be stopped, by treating addiction as a disease.
Part of that is focusing on having more beds in rehabs, instead of filling prisons and giving the money that should be going toward mental health to the Corrections Corporations of America.
“Most importantly, we need to stop the War on Drugs.”
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Fantastic Video