DESTROYING A LIFE BY 9-YEAR INCARCERATION - WHY?

February 09th, 2007 | Category: Opiate Addiction

On Jan. 25 the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a 20 year old was sentenced to nine years in prison for selling 8 ecstasy pills to a 16 year-old high school student who subsequently tried to kill herself by overdosing on theese pills. The defendant is said to have had no prior drug convictions, was addicted to narcotics and “had cooperated with police . . . “

What possible good can come of this sentence - and for whom? What will the public get

in return for a destroyed life and the many hundreds of thousands of dollars it will cost to lock up the seller for almost a decade? Can anyone believe there will be any “deterrence,” any reduction in buying or selling or using illicit substances? Isn’t it time to rethink the laws that are applied in situations like this - if not for humanitarian reasons, than strictly from the perspective of what makes sense for the general community?

Original post by RGNewman, MD

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