Lit_Match

I'll free drug offenders
09-23-08|Rutland Herald|Ben Mitchell

[This guy has a huge pair of brass ones.]

I am Ben Mitchell, the Liberty Union candidate for lieutenant governor in the state of Vermont. If I am elected and the governor leaves the state for even 10 minutes, I will pardon all nonviolent drug offenders serving time in Vermont or Kentucky prisons. I think it is stupid to pay $45,000 a year to lock up drug users when we won't spend more than $7,000 a year to educate our young people. Besides, I thought this was a free country.

I believe the current system is totally ineffective. During almost 30 years of the war on drugs, we have seen an increase in prevalence of drug abuse and incarceration. The Bureau of Justice's own statistics tell the story. In 2001, an estimated 2.7 percent of adults in the U.S. had served time in prison, up from 1.8 percent in 1991 and 1.3 percent in 1974. Three out of every four convicted jail inmates were alcohol- or drug-involved at the time of their current offense. Drug offenders, up 37 percent, represented the largest source of jail population growth between 1996 and 2002. More than two-thirds of the growth in inmates held in local jails for drug law violations was due to an increase in persons charged with drug trafficking.

Knowing that 75 percent of those serving time suffer from drug and alcohol addiction should suggest that the real issue here is addiction. We are using the criminal system to deal with a medical issue. I do not see any benefit in throwing people struggling with addiction into a population that will provide little help for the core problem and in most cases drives inmates to become more violent. If we were to focus on the problem of addiction, we could provide treatment that would be much less expensive and significantly improve the outcome. With the savings, we could focus our corrections budget on protecting society from those who are truly dangerous.

Also by legalizing drugs, we could tax and regulate them, providing a significant new income stream for the state and eliminating the criminal profit. The retail drug trade in the US is estimated at $60 billion annually. The true criminals who make the profit are often shielded from the risk, leaving the addicts to serve the time. Also, if Vermont were to legalize marijuana, we would create a huge new revenue stream for the agricultural community. I am certain that our neighbors from New York and New Hampshire would be very loyal to the Vermont organic label given the opportunity.

It is time to acknowledge that the war on drugs is failed. It is bad policy. Although profitable for the privatized prison system — who in some cases even exploits the inmates for slave labor — the war on drugs is by every measure not only unsuccessful but increasing the problem. How stupid are we?

BEN MITCHELL

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Donation links to NORML (The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) | MPP (Marijuana Policy Project)

GREENFOODGAMES

Good Read
I hope Mr. MItchell makes his way to office

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"Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." Lincoln

Mikeebud

Lmao, Enjoyed that, I like the guy..

Go mr ben mitchell.

dirtbomb

We need a few more of this guy in office.

Buzzby

It doesn't take a lot of balls to throw away an election you had no chance of winning anyway.

Except that we don't know that. Being drunk or stoned when committing a crime is no indication that you're an addict.

The great majority of drug users aren't addicts, so it's not even dealing with a medical issue. It's criminal sanctions for people who are harming no one, not even themselves.

Again, most drug users aren't addicts and are not in need of any treatment. They're more like the guy who comes home from work and has a couple of beers.

I'm glad this guy doesn't want to lock up drug users in jails. He just wants to lock them up in treatment facilities. If he can't get past the idea that all drug users are suffering from an addiction problem, he's completely ignorant of the situation on the ground.

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king cola

Some prisoners still manage to get drugs while in jail. If someone is addicted they need to want to get the help. You can't help someone that doesn't want the help. If someone checks themself into a rehab that's a big step to make because they are admitting they have a problem. If someone is an addict that doesn't want the help and just wants to continue their use of drugs then you really can't do nothing about it. When I was in the drug and alcohol program for a dwi I did see one person that was in there who checked themself into rehab for heroin use. Others were in there like myself under a court order as part of probation. If people go to rehab and don't want the help then the whole purpose of treatment is useless unless someone happens to go to rehab that is an addict and wants to change. If they don't want to change then they will go out and get back into their drug habit. A drug user is a little different. They don't have an addiction, they go into rehab and are treated as if they were an addict. The user might continue to use the drug for the effect but the user isn't a addict that craves the drug. If the user gets out of rehab and ends up back in rehab again because of a court order they are still told they have a drug problem. If the person doesn't have a drug problem then there is no treatment to help them with but if someone is addicted and goes to rehab i'm not saying to give up on them, give them a chance and see if they want to change. If they leave the rehab and go back into using the drug that they are addicted to then I don't think you can really help the person.

I like that hes going to pardon non violent drug offenders but what if the person he pardons goes back into jail for drugs over and over? Is he going to continue to pardon the same people or keep putting them in rehab over and over again?