Half of Americans say drug use should be treated more like a disease than a crime, but they are divided on whether states...

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The High Stakes of Stakeholder Engagement: A Plea for Careful Planning from Public Agenda

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This post was written for the 20 community colleges participating in Completion by Design, a five-year Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation initiative that aims to significantly increase completion rates for low-income students under 26. As a “National Assistance partner” for Completion by Design, Public Agenda provides direct assistance to the colleges to help them build capacity for solutions-oriented dialogue among faculty, staff and administration. Here, Public Agenda's Alison Kadlec discusses best practices for authentic internal stakeholder engagement. While the post is geared toward Completion by Design planning teams, the principles are useful for any authentic engagement process.

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Jan 24, 2012

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Half of Americans say drug use should be treated more like a disease than a crime, but they are divided on whether states should eliminate mandatory sentences for nonviolent drug offenders

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Tags: crime, Disease, Drug, Drug Offenders, prison

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Re: Half of Americans say drug use should be treated more like a disease than a crime, but they are divided on whether states...

On February 23, 2009 karren says:

And now I come to support the statistics: drug use or drug addiction is a disease not a crime. It's a disease of individuals but also a disease of the society, you don't put sick people to jail, you put them in curing centers. How many years need to pass until we'll all understand this important aspect? Rehab centers should play a crucial role in this regard.

Re: Half of Americans say drug use should be treated more like a disease than a crime, but they are divided on whether states...

On December 1, 2010 Anonymous says:

Do you understand that these drugs are ILLEGAL?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Why should we let these people who do ILLEGAL drugs get off easy?!?!?!?!?!?!? This is from the DEA website.... This pretty much explains it all... Here's the parts you dont seem to understand. Take a close look at them.

A Message from the Drug Enforcement Administration
Summary of the Top Ten Facts on Legalization

Fact 1: We have made significant progress in fighting drug use and drug trafficking in America. Now is not the time to abandon our efforts.

The Legalization Lobby claims that the fight against drugs cannot be won. However, overall drug use is down by more than a third in the last twenty years, while cocaine use has dropped by an astounding 70 percent. Ninety-five percent of Americans do not use drugs. This is success by any standards.

Fact 3: Illegal drugs are illegal because they are harmful.

There is a growing misconception that some illegal drugs can be taken safely. For example, savvy drug dealers have learned how to market drugs like Ecstasy to youth. Some in the Legalization Lobby even claim such drugs have medical value, despite the lack of conclusive scientific evidence.

Fact 4: Smoked marijuana is not scientifically approved medicine. Marinol, the legal version of medical marijuana, is approved by science.

According to the Institute of Medicine, there is no future in smoked marijuana as medicine. However, the prescription drug Marinol—a legal and safe version of medical marijuana which isolates the active ingredient of THC—has been studied and approved by the Food & Drug Administration as safe medicine. The difference is that you have to get a prescription for Marinol from a licensed physician. You can’t buy it on a street corner, and you don’t smoke it.

Fact 7: Crime, violence, and drug use go hand-in-hand.

Crime, violence and drug use go hand in hand. Six times as many homicides are committed by people under the influence of drugs, as by those who are looking for money to buy drugs. Most drug crimes aren’t committed by people trying to pay for drugs; they’re committed by people on drugs.

Fact 8: Alcohol has caused significant health, social, and crime problems in this country, and legalized drugs would only make the situation worse.

The Legalization Lobby claims drugs are no more dangerous than alcohol. But drunk driving is one of the primary killers of Americans. Do we want our bus drivers, nurses, and airline pilots to be able to take drugs one evening, and operate freely at work the next day? Do we want to add to the destruction by making drugged driving another primary killer?

Fact 9: Europe’s more liberal drug policies are not the right model for America.

The Legalization Lobby claims that the “European Model” of the drug problem is successful. However, since legalization of marijuana in Holland, heroin addiction levels have tripled. And Needle Park seems like a poor model for America.

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