Data suggests drug treatment can lower U.S. crime
Source: Reuters
Data suggests drug treatment can lower U.S. crime
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON | Thu May 17, 2012 12:09am EDT
(Reuters) - U.S. crime statistics show illegal drugs play a central role in criminal acts, providing new evidence that tackling drugs as a public health issue could offer a powerful tool for lowering national crime rates, officials said on Thursday.
An annual drug monitoring report, released by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, also showed a decline in the use of cocaine since 2003, a sign that drug-interdiction efforts and public education campaigns may be curtailing the use of the drug's powder and crack forms.
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U.S. officials held up the data as evidence to support President Barack Obama's strategy aimed at breaking the cycle of drugs and crime by attacking substance abuse with treatment rather than jail for nonviolent offenders.
"Tackling the drug issue could go a long way in reducing our crime issues," Gil Kerlikowske, head of the office that issued the report, told Reuters in an interview.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-usa-drugs-idUSBRE84G06G20120517
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)in reducing crime or the CJ system.
--The DEA and their symbiotic partners, the drug cartels
--The private prison industry
--The State Prison guard unions
--The industrialists who use prison labor
--The little towns whose major "industry" is the prison on the outskirts
--The DA's striving to make a reputation on drug prosecutions
--Local law enforcement (city & county) who keep getting grants to "fight drugs"
--The prison & jail builders
--The liquor industry
--The pharmaceutical industry
and I'm sure others can add more such "stakeholders."
drokhole
(1,230 posts)raccoon
(31,110 posts)get the red out
(13,462 posts)All you have to do is watch the local news here on any given evening. Most crimes are committed to further someone's addiction or because they were drunk or high at the time.
"War on drugs" is a gigantic fail; unfortunately facing this huge public health and safety issue as if we were adults hasn't been tried.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)That's a real statistic (approximately), not hyperbole.
Another thing that's true of most inmates is that they are the products of physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse and neglect. Sometimes a little bit of psychotherapy can go a long way in helping them get past the traumas and the need for drugs to anesthetize their emotions.
get the red out
(13,462 posts)Good mental health care, and access to it, is the missing link in a lot of our societal problems.