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"Just speaking for myself - if I ever get busted - I promise you that clinical treatment will be my first choice in judicial remedies."

If you got busted for a first offense of marijuana possession where I live you would get put on probation and one of the conditions of your probation besides paying lots of fines and costs would be to complete the "Marijuana Offender Program," which is a class that you go to on a couple of Saturdays where you will watch a whole bunch of videos and listen to some kid who has a counselor "certificate" talk. This class will be reported as treatment and you will be a number in these statistics they cite. Your primary drug of abuse will be listed as marijuana. Every single person arrested here is to get some sort of "treatment." I have no doubt that there are many states with similar laws and that much of this "treatment" they talk about is along the lines of that I described.

If you got busted for a first offense of marijuana possession where I live you would get put on probation and one of the conditions of your probation besides paying lots of fines and costs would be to complete the "Marijuana Offender Program," which is a class that you go to on a couple of Saturdays where you will watch a whole bunch of videos and listen to some kid who has a counselor "certificate" talk. This class will be reported as treatment and you will be a number in these statistics they cite. Your primary drug of abuse will be listed as marijuana.

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So, I would be another brick in the wall. Just what I thought. The government's payroll would increase, taxes would "of necessity" increase, my wage earning potential would suffer and I would probably meet a host of substance users of every stripe. Some of these people might even become long term associates. I think I already understood the equation.

Always good to read your posts.