Time to recognize those hooked on drugs are victims, not criminals

[neversickanymore]

Time to recognize those hooked on drugs are victims, not criminals
By South Jersey Times Editorial Board
on September 15, 2014

Some 150 candles glowed as darkness fell on Timber Creek Park in Gloucester Township, each in honor of a life.

Police officers in uniform, elected officials and civilians came together as one this weekend to remember those lost to the evils of drugs.

While the ceremony may have helped ease some of the pain felt by family members left behind and highlighted the work of the Camden County Opiate and Heroin Addiction Awareness Task Force, we believe it was much more.

The event was a recognition that those who died from drug overdoses are not criminals, they are victims. They are victims that need our help — the help of family, law enforcement, treatment specialists — not our scorn.

"It all starts with awareness," said Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr., who was among those at Saturday night's observance.

He's right. Drug abuse knows no borders, whether they be geographical or social.

Continued here http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf...rugs_are_victims_not_criminals_editorial.html

 

[S.J.B.]

I was wary as soon as I saw "victims" in the title, and look at that, the article turned out to be full of vicious anti-drug moralizing...

I don't know what's worse, the attitude that we are all bad people or that we are all helplessly sick and need help. The end result seems to be the same (prohibition!).

People really need to go meet some illicit-drug users and see that they aren't all that different from everyone else.

 

[Jabberwocky]

As people who have used or use drugs are everybody else!

 

[foolsgold]

believe or not that is just the response i got today for the coppers that i am not a criminal as such but a addict who needs help not jail and constant harassment

 

[Jabberwocky]

Considering society creates the criminal, I think seeing drug users as criminals might actually be more effective than seeing them as victims. After all, our society still treats them primarily as criminals, so why try and delude ourselves? Until that's different, such an idiotic thing as seeing or treating any drug user as a mere victim based on the fact they use drugs or have a history with them would play straight into the hands of proponents of prohibition and their beneficiaries.

So wasn't surprised to hear that the article is full of vicious anti-drug moralizing...