I’m actually torn on this.
I have a huge number of clients who just have these stupid drug charges. Otherwise, they have no other criminal record. They might be a grandmother, 9 grandkids, works for a living, but bizarrely also has the vice of doing cocaine and pot. She gets caught and it’s a felony charge. Maybe they don’t do jail time, maybe they do if they’ve been caught before.
Other clients, like those who do heroin, might be hardcore dependent on them and are unable to function. They might have jobs as handymen, lawncare, whatever, but they’er doing heroin and falling asleep at the taco bell parking lot.
Again, no violent criminal record. Not even thefts (but sometimes there are, to feed the addiction). Maybe traffic violations, whatever, but because they get caught so much, now they’re facing years in prison.
It seems to me that most drugs, like marijuana, Joe Rogan’s DMT, etc., are not more addictive than alcohol and that there is no one being harmed by them other than the user and the State, and the State retaliates by hurting them more than the drugs ever did.
ON THE OTHER HAND
I get a client, a black guy. Every single black client I get has 20-30 previous arrests. Lots of it violent. Assaults with deadly weapons but they dropped the deadly weapon part to get a guilty plea. Breaking into cars, houses. Brandishing guns. The works. He comes to me because he’s charged for drug dealing, and it is THIS charge that may finally put him away on a first degree felony. Not the crazy violence he’s done in the past, or the fact that he’s violated parole or bond every time he’s been on it.
The drug use by them is just a feature of their overall criminal activity. It makes it easier to put them away when you also got them for drug possession or dealing.
It seems to me, even if drug laws are unnecessary, drug laws help keep violent crime down because violent criminals often do drugs—but drugs don’t always cause violent crime, unless it’s severely addictive, and even then, not all the time.
So you see, I’m torn. I don’t like these drug laws ruining the lives of otherwise normal people or people who are simply troubled and need support.
But drug laws also keep crime down.
What's up with that? Is it the mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses?