From: alexlh@yourchoice.nl (Alex Le Heux)
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 23:26:27 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Welfare Solution #389
In-Reply-To: <3.0.3.32.19970822025549.006f3d6c@pop.mhv.net>
Message-ID: <Mutt.19970822164738.alexlh@sarah.yc>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Lynne L. Harrison writes:
> At 07:30 AM 8/22/97 +0200, Anonymous wrote:
> >
> >Welfare Solution #389:
> >  Many in the welfair class have their basic needs met by the government
> >and then steal to buy heroin.
> >  How about this? - When a person on welfare is busted for heroin use,
> >or theft to support a habit, the State thereafter sends the person's
> >welfare check to a Crime Restitution fund and lets the person keep
> >stealing, only now it is for the purpose of supplying their own
> >basic needs.
> 
> In NY, when a defendant gets convicted of a crime including a drug offense,
> s/he has to pay a mandatory surcharge part of which is a Crime Victims'
> Fee.  [Query: who is the victim in a drug case? -- but I digress...].
> Also, if it was a crime where the victim suffered financial losses, the
> defendant not only has to pay the Crime Victim's Fee but also restitution
> to the victim.
> 
> Additionally, pursuant to Federal Law, anyone convicted of a drug charge
> and, who is residing is federally-subsidized housing, becomes subject to
> eviction proceedings.  [Quirk: if one family member is engaged in such
> business activities, the entire family is captured under the law's umbrella
> but, again, I digress..].
> 
Kicking a drug addict out of his home, or taking away his one source of
income is not going to solve anything. It'll only make things worse. Worse
for the addict and for society. This will only serve to remove the addict
even further from society and thereby make him more of a burden for that
same society.

Here in The Netherlands we treat drug addiction more as a disease than as
a crime. We try to intergrate him/her back into the normal world of having
a house, paying rent, getting a job, etc.

I Switserland they've gone even further now, and started supplying hardcore
herion addicts with free heroin. The results were quite dramatic. Most of the
addicts gave up stealing/etc and some even managed to get and hold a normal
job. As it turned out, supplying them with free heroin was much cheaper than
having them hang around and steal/rob/etc. It also served to reduce the call
for extra police, and the call by the police for more rights/weapons/etc.

Criminalizing drug offences is a Bad Thing. Unfortunately our own government
is slowely succumbing under the international pressure, and soon we'll have
our own War On Drugs here. This will serve no one, not the addict, not the
casual user and not the general public. Probably it'll only serve the various
law enforcement agencies.

Alex

/// I dabble in techno-house and sometimes,
/// I do that badass hip-hop thang...
/// But the F U N K gets me every time!